Kidnapped
by rctperson85
Summary: Lincoln and Leni decide to take a stroll around the park after being told by their mother to go get some excersize. But after Leni gets kidnapped, everything changes and Lincoln finds out something about Leni that he never knew. Rated T for slight language, suspense, and other situations related to kidnapping. Loud House is owned by Nickelodeon.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Lincoln sat on his bed in his room, reading some comics in his underwear like he always did on Sunday afternoons. For him, Sunday was the only day that he could really enjoy himself. Monday through Friday were all out of the question. Saturday was the day that everyone had plans, which included Ronnie-Anne. He enjoyed hanging out with her, there was no doubt about it. But even the only boy in the world who knew how to keep all ten of his sisters, and his girlfriend happy, needed some time to himself; and to him, this was the best way to do it.

"Ahh... This is the Life..."

He spoke too soon. Right then his mom burst through the door to his room, making him jump and drop his comic on the floor.

"Whoops! Sorry Lincoln!"

The door to lincoln's room was notoriously easy to open, so if someone didn't hold onto the handle while opening it, like Rita did, the door would fling onto the dresser next to the entrance, making a nice loud _Whack,_ even if it wasn't opened with great force. Lincoln, unfortunately, was the only one who consistently remembered this. Mostly because of the fact that his head started ringing every time he heard the door hit its target.

"Lincoln honey, you need to go outside and get some excersize."

Wonderful. Lincoln remembered the last time this happened. Not only did he cost the Royal Woods football team the championship trophy, but his sister got hurt, and he was ridiculed by everyone at school for over a month. That was not something that he was willing to go through again.

"Mom, I can't! Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"I do, and that's exactly why I'm not forcing you too join any sports this time. As long as you go outside and do something other than read comics or play video games, you can do whatever you want."

Lincoln wasn't exactly happy with it, but he was glad that she wasn't making him do one specific thing. That was what got him into the previous mess in the first place. As it had turned out, Lynn broke her ankle that day. It wasn't a sprain like everyone thought it was at first. Every time Lincoln thought about it, it made him cringe. He quickly got that memory out of his head and replied to his mother.

"Okay mom, just lemme finish this comic. It won't even take me two minutes, I'm almost done with it."

"Hmm... Fine. But If I come back in here in five minutes and find you still sitting there, you're going to be in big trouble mister!"

"Don't worry. I'll be long gone before then!" And with that, Rita shut the door to his room, accidentally slamming it again.

"Ugh..." Lincoln moaned. This was his one day to stay in bed and read comics or play videogames or do whatever he wanted. But now he had to throw all his plans away and go outside to actually do something.

Finishing his comic, he stood up and got his classic Lincoln clothes on; an orange polo and blue jeans. Before stepping out of the door, he grabbed his little handheld gaming device and put it into his back pocket. Maybe his mom wouldn't notice it. Stepping out of the door, he noticed his older sister, Leni, also reluctantly leaving her room. What could she possibly be doing?

"Leni?"

"Oh! Hey Linky!"

"Where are you going?"

"Umm... I was just gonna... walk around the park to break in these new shoes I got!" Lincoln could hear some hesitancy in her voice. It was a pretty good excuse for Leni, but everyone knew that she didn't walk anywhere but in the mall. So naturally, Lincoln thought that she was confronted about her lack of excersize too.

"Mom told you to get some excersize didn't she?" Lincoln said with a sympathetic look on his face.

Leni nodded her head in defeat. It wasn't hard to tell when Leni was lying, mostly because she didn't do it very often. As a matter of fact, Lincoln couldn't remember the last time that Leni even tried to hide something from them, let alone flat out lie to them. This must have been the first time in months or maybe even a year that she tried this. It was so out of character for her to do that unless her or her siblings were in trouble.

"Can I go with you? Mom said the same thing to me..."

"Of course you can Linky! It's always better with two people, that way you have someone to talk to!"

Lincoln wasn't exactly fond of hearing Leni talk about everything and anything while they were at the park, but he figured it beat the heck out of just walking around and not doing anything. So together, they walked down the stairs and left the house, making their way to the park. Surprisingly, Leni didn't immediately start talking. Instead it was Lincoln who did.

"Mom is so nosy..."

"What?"

"I mean..." Lincoln scratched his head for a second, thinking of a way Leni would understand it. "She gets in our business all the time..."

"Ugh... Tell me about it... Like... I get that she's our mom and stuff and that she's supposed to, like, help us out and all that, and she's really good at it too! But sometimes it gets, like, super annoying when she's always checking up on us. It just gets me so irritated sometimes. And I read somewhere that that's totes not good for your skin."

"I know right! Not the skin thing, but mom. She is just so annoying... Arghh..."

"Hey, try not to worry about it too much. Too much stress can cause Acne you know, and nobody wants that."

Despite the fact that none of their family really had problems with acne, which surprised all of them, Leni was right. It wasn't good for you to stress out over simple things. Besides, Rita was their mother, she was just doing what she thought was best for them. With that thought in mind, he also was slightly thankful that their mom didn't make just him go walk around. It would have been awful trying to do something outside by himself, even if he did have his little game, which he had completely forgot about at this point. And while Leni and Lincoln didn't exactly have the same hobbies and neither of them were even close to liking the same things, they got along really well, and not just because they were siblings either. Leni knew how to talk about anything and everything and Lincoln knew how to listen to anything and everything and even chime in on a few things he may have known about. You learn how to do that really well when you have ten sisters.

The two of them were just chatting with each other as they walked to the park. When they got there, they didn't stop, they just kept walking, not even keeping track of the time. It was just before five when they left and it was nearly seven thirty when they realized they needed to get home. The two of them probably would have continued talking if it weren't for the fact that it was starting to get dark outside. Both of them had succesfully spent two and a half hours not only outside, but also walking around and getting some decent excersize.

"Hey Leni, can we sit down for a minute before we go home?"

"Sure Linky! Tbh, my legs are getting kind of tired too. And my feet are a little sore."

"Probably because of those new shoes you're wearing."

As Lincoln sat down, he remembered that he had his gaming device in his back pocket. A huge grin crossed his face as he took it out and immediately started playing on it. The game that was in it was an old, but time consuming game. If it weren't for Leni reminding him that they needed to get home, he probably would have sat there all night long playing it. Even when they got up from the bench, he was still playing it while walking back to the house. At this point he was partially ignoring Leni as she was talking, making comments like, "Yup" "cool" and "no way!" when she looked at him.

Finally, Lincoln looked up to see that the house was in sight. The lovely view of various objects scattered across the yard was the only one of it's kind in the entire city of Royal Woods. Lincoln pocketed his game as he got closer, he didn't want his mom to expect anything. He put his hands in his pockets and, still looking forward, called back to Leni, who had been uncharacteristically silent for the past few minutes.

"Leni, we're almost home."

No response.

"Leni?" Lincoln looked back to see that Leni was nowhere to be found. She didn't pass him up, so he just assumed that she had fallen behind after getting distracted by a cute squirrel or something like that. He started waiting for her to catch up, checking the time every so often. Five minutes passed. Ten Minutes passed. Lincoln was starting to get a little worried. Fifteen minutes passed and Leni was still nowhere in sight. Lincoln's heart rate started rising and his adrenaline started pumping as he expected the worst.

"Leni! Where are you?!"

When he recieved no response yet again, Lincoln started freaking out and ran back towards the park as fast as he could, stopping to look behind bushes and trees every so often. There was no way she could be hiding from him, trying to freak him out like this, she wasn't good enough at it. Lincoln's voice had such a worried tone to it, that there was no way Leni wouldn't respond if she was within earshot. She was too concerned about her other siblings well being to intentionally make them that worried.

Leni was nowhere to be seen and was not responding to Lincoln's desperate attempts to find out where she was. Lincoln wasn't even halfway back to the park yet before tears started spilling out of his eyes. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before. What if something happened to her? How was he going to tell everyone else? What if she was never found? That last question forced him back to reality. She would be found, he was sure of it. But what he wasn't sure about, was when and by what means.

A little ways past what the Louds considered the halfway marker when walking to and from the park, Lincoln found Leni's handbag with a bunch of her makeup and other stuff scattered out on the ground. Just a few feet away, he could make out tiny dark drops of something on the sidewalk, only illuminated by a street light. It was still pretty dark, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what was staining the sidewalk. Lincoln stopped in his tracks upon seeing this and fell to his knees, really sobbing at this point.

"No... Not Leni... Please..."

"Something's wrong..." Rita told her husband.

"Now what makes you say that honey?"

"Lincoln and Leni haven't returned from their walk yet."

"Listen, I'm sure they're fine. They probably just lost track of time."

"But they said that they would be back before it got dark!"

"Hey, if something happened, they would let us know. You know they never tell us if they're going to be late," Lynn Sr chuckled slightly. "They take after us a bit too well."

Rita sighed, and a smile formed on her face "You're right. They're probably walking back home as we speak!"

"Exactly! Now come on, lets finish up dinner so it will be ready when they get back."

Rita nodded and started setting the tables. Despite her husband's reassurance, she still couldn't help but feel something in the pit of her stomach. There was something going on, she just knew it, but brushed those feelings aside for the time being and continued with supper.

"I hope they're okay..."

Lincoln was sprinting down the sidewalk back towards the house with Leni's bag in his hand, her stuff sealed safely inside it as it jerked around. Lincoln had never run faster in his life. His legs were pumping back and forth as his eyes, full of tears, scanned the sidewalk and surrounding areas for any signs of Leni. Nothing. If it wasn't for the sudden adrenaline rush he got, he would be weeping uncontrollably on his knees, not getting anywhere.

He couldn't stop thinking about his older sister and what she could possibly be going through right now. He didn't know a whole lot about these things, but he knew that nothing good could possibly come out of it. He always saw stories like this on the news and had heard some of the things that happened to them. He had never worried about something like that happening to any of his sisters; especially any of his older ones. But now, the only thing that he could think about, was what was going to happen to Leni. Even if they did find her before anything bad happened, Lincoln still wouldn't be able to forgive himself. He had been so engrossed in his game, that he didn't even notice Leni's dissapearance. This would be something that he would never forget. It would stay with him for the rest of his life, haunting him. His sister was in terrible danger because he couldn't look away from his video game. Even if he wasn't playing his game and it still ended up the same way, it would have been better knowing he did everything in his power to make sure something like this never happened. But he didn't. He couldn't leave his video games be for just two hours. He had to bring them with him.

Lincoln suddenly stopped, just a few hundred feet away from the house. He took his little game that he was so amused by in his hand and stared at it. It was the only thing that stopped him from making a difference, and now, terrible things could be happening to his sister, because of it. No, not because of it, because Lincoln was too selfish to just leave it at home like his mother told him to. It was his own fault and he knew it. This thing was just a toy, it couldn't force anyone to do what they didn't want to. But he still couldn't stand the sight of it anymore. He raised his arm and threw it down on the sidewalk, shattering it into a thousand pieces instantly. A tiny bit of smoke came up from it before Lincoln began his sprint again, heading towards the house which was back in view now.

Lincoln didn't waste any time. He sprinted around the corner and up the creaky wooden stairs, not even bothering with the door handle. He just shoved the front door open, slamming it into the wall next to them. Lori was sitting on the couch watching TV when her brother came in. She was about to scold him for coming in so violently. Her face was already beginning to scrunch up. But then she looked closer and saw tears in his eyes and Leni's purse in his arm. Her face changed drastically upon seeing his. Slamming the door was the last thing she was thinking about now. She could only think about any of the possible reasons why Lincoln would be crying as he was running into the house.

"Lincoln! Are you okay? What happened?"

She immediately ran up to him to check him for any scrapes or bruises. Hearing Lori so worried, especially after hearing the door slam against the wall, made everyone else rush downstairs. Their parents also came out of their room upon hearing the commotion. Everyone was down at the front door before Lincoln even had a chance to say anything. They all bombarded him with questions, wondering what was going on.

"Girls! Give Lincoln some space!" Their dad boomed. "Okay now sport, can you tell us what happened?"

Sniffling, Lincoln reluctantly told them, "I... I think Leni's been... been..." Silence hung in the air for a few moments before he finally revealed what he thought happened.

"Kidnapped..."

 **Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter in this story. I currently do not know how long this will end up being but I sincerely appreciate everyone who read it. Please leave a review and thanks again!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry it took so long to update. I had a big trip planned and wasn't able to work on the story at all. I will hopefully start posting chapters more regularly now. I will also start working on the epilogue chapters of my personal ending to "Requiem for a Loud." Thanks for reading and Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

In the darkness of the evening, crickets were chirping. There was also the occasional frog croaking. Every five minutes or so a dog would be heard barking. Normally, none of these things could ever be heard except after midnight. The Loud family was always breaking the silence. But this time, all of them were completely quiet. The neighbors decided to enjoy the silence while it lasted, as this didn't happen very often, especially in the evening like this. None of them even considered that something could be wrong.

"Lincon... Are you sure?" Lynn Sr didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to believe that any of his daughters may have been taken from them, possibly violently. It was something that he couldn't bear to think about. All Lincoln did was nod his head and hand them Leni's bag as he continued sobbing, now having collapsed to his knees.

"I... I didn't see it... but I did see... I saw..."

"What was it? What did you see?!"

"Quiet Lynn!"

"It wasn't a lot... I've seen more in here... but... but it was so scary..."

"Lincoln..."

"Next to her purse... her things... they were all over the ground..."

"Rita, go call 911..."

"But... there was... there was blood..."

Lincoln completely broke down as he fell into his father's arms, the picture of his sister's blood staining the sidewalk still fresh in his mind. The rest of the girls, with the exception of Lily, ran outside to try to find Leni, despite it being as dark as it was. Running around the neighborhood in the night wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but they were all freaking out over Leni. None of them wanted to accept the fact that she was kidnapped, but they were forced to.

Luna was running towards the park screaming Leni's name with Lana following close behind her. It didn't take long for them to reach the place where Leni was kidnapped. Luna didn't realize they were there at first, but she stepped on one of Leni's bottles of lip gloss that Lincoln forgot to pick up and it splattered all over the ground. Luna looked back and saw not only the lip gloss, but the few drops of blood as well. She fell to her knees in defeat, just staring at the sidewalk. There were about fifteen to twenty drops of blood on the ground, and none of them were bigger than what a small raindrop would look like, but that didn't matter. To Luna, it could have been a trail of blood and no one would have been able to tell the difference by her facial expression.

Lana caught up to Luna and looked down at the blood stained sidewalk. She gasped, and then, falling on the ground, broke out into tears. It couldn't be true. Lana knew what kidnapping was, but she only thought it happened to little kids like her, not to teenagers like Leni. To her, Leni was huge. It didn't seem like anyone could ever take her older sister away from her. But someone did, and now, Leni was gone, and wherever she was, she was most likely hurt. Lana ran into Luna's arms and she willingly embraced her bawling little sister, despite the fact that she was now crying herself. Why did something like this have to happen? And why to Leni? She never did anything wrong, not on purpose anyway. It baffled Luna's mind, but she didn't need to be worried about why it happened. She needed to be worried about Leni and where she was.

Lori and Lucy were on the other side of the road looking for their sister. Lucy was keeping her composure, but only just, and tears had started forming in Lori's eyes as they were running down the sidewalk towards the park. Why would someone do this? What kind of sick twisted mind goes around kidnapping high school girls? The thought of it was too much to bear. Leni was out there, being held hostage by strangers, getting beaten, tortured, or worse. Lori stopped in her tracks for just a moment, closed her eyes and tightened her fists. It couldn't be true. This had to be some kind of a joke, a terrible prank that Luan and Leni were playing on them. More tears trickled from Lori's eyes as she just stared down at the ground.

She was snapped back to reality when Lucy began tugging on her arm. She was pointing across the street at two figures, one of which was staring at the sidewalk in front of her, holding the other figure in her arms. Luna and Lana. Lori's already racing heart started beating faster as she ran across the road in a sprint, trying to see what was going on as Lucy followed close behind her. The look of pure horror on Luna's face was enough to make even Lucy scared, let alone Lori. Then they saw the blood. Her heart stopped for a moment as she took it all in. Leni really had been kidnapped. Normally a situation like this would have made Lori break down, but all of their sisters were out looking for Leni, and in the dark. Anything could happen to them this late at night, so she sent out a text telling them where to go, and then fell to her knees next to Luna. Lori was the oldest. She was supposed to be there and protect all of her siblings, but she couldn't even keep Leni safe. What made her think that she could do better for any of the others?

In less than a minute, the entire Loud family, and two police officers who were struggling to keep up, were at the scene of the crime. Lincoln refused to look. The only reason Lincoln was there was because his parents dragged him along. He didn't want to relive the pain that he went through when he first saw it. Starting to cry again, he put his head down on his mother's side, her arm wrapping around him as he did. He couldn't stand himself, thinking it was his fault that Leni was gone. He would never be able to forgive himself if she got really badly hurt. What if she never came back? A thought like that had never even crossed Lincoln's mind. It was now more than ever that he regretted bringing the game with him. The game that was now shattered to pieces on the sidewalk. He wouldn't be playing it again. He didn't want to anyway. It was already hard enough live with himself, thinking it was because of him that Leni was kidnapped, but if something happened to any of his other sisters because he was too amused by his toy, his toy that didn't really ever matter, he may not be able to live with himself. Yes, he was sometimes selfish, but he was always able to make it up to his sisters when he messed up. He couldn't undo this though. It was something that they would all remember as long as they were alive.

The sound of the family crying drowned out every other sound that was being made. All of the crickets, the frogs, the crows; they were all nothing compared to the Louds. Normally, people would be yelling out of their windows, telling them to be quiet. But if hearing them crying wasn't enough, seeing the police officers close to the group was all they needed to stay quiet. They knew that something had happened to them, something bad, and despite the sleep they were all trying to get, they couldn't help but feel sorry for them. It wasn't every day that someone lost a family member, and with a family as big as the Loud's, it wasn't a surprise that they were all acting like this. Complaining would have only made the situation worse, so they just kept to themselves as best as they could. Even Mr Grouse, who would normally jump on the opportunity to yell at the Louds, was silent tonight.

Rita and Lynn Sr looked at the ground in horror as the police officers started writing the report. Lori was calling Bobby, telling him everything that happened with mascara running down her face. Luna had her arm around Luan as she sobbed into her sister's shoulder. Lynn, just barely fighting back tears, was nervously pacing on the grass, slowly making a rut in it. Lucy was simply staring at the drops of dried blood on the ground. Lana and Lola were sitting down, cross-legged, only because they kept getting in the officers' way. Lisa was doing the same for the same reason, except she got in the way because she was trying to figure out what had happened. Lincoln had broke free from his mother's embrace and sat down on the curb a few feet behind everyone else. Even if he wasn't crying anymore, it was obvious that he was affected the most by it.

"What's wrong Linc?"

"It's nothing Lynn... don't worry about it."

"Dude... You're my little bro, it's my job to worry about you."

"Yeah... I'm the one you should be worried about right now..."

Lincoln's sarcastic comment didn't exactly sit well with Lynn, but the circumstances made her push her anger aside so that she could talk to her little brother.

"Dude, chill out! It's not like you could have stopped it..."

Lincoln stood up and stomped over to his sister. All he wanted was to sit there quietly, with no one bothering him. But of course, it couldn't be done for more than two minutes. She tried staring him down to make him back off, but after a few seconds, she started getting worried. He wasn't backing off like usual. It was this moment that made Lynn realize how angry her brother could get. Not only that, but suddenly, she was painfully aware of how he was actually taller than she was. Lincoln was never angry like this, which only confirmed her suspicions. But now that she had accidentally pushed him over, she realized for the first time just how scary he could be when he was actually angry. Her little brother was actually scaring her.

"Just shut up... You have no idea what happened..."

"L... Lincoln?"

He turned back around and sat on the curb again, putting his hands up to his face, his elbows resting on his knees. Lynn slowly shuffled towards him, trying to think of something to say. It wasn't like it was his fault that Leni was kidnapped. Was it? Lincoln was one of the most kind-hearted people she knew. Despite picking on him and trying to get involved with every little detail in his life, he still loved them with all his heart. He would never intentionally put any of his sisters in harms way. Maybe that was why seeing him so angry scared her.

"I could have stopped it actually..."

Lynn froze at his comment, "Wh... What?"

"If I had never started playing that videogame, which I wasn't supposed to bring in the first place, I might have been able to prevent it from happening!"

"Lincoln..."

"I was too engulfed in my own selfishness, that I didn't even notice Leni was gone. The only reason I noticed was because I put my game away so I wouldn't get in trouble... I didn't care that she hadn't tried to talk to me for five minutes, I didn't even care that she wasn't making any noises at all." Lincoln's tone turned more somber, "All I was worried about... was getting punished for bringing a video game where I wasn't supposed to."

Tears had started forming in his eyes again. If he had kept going, it wouldn't have been long before he really started crying. Lynn broke out of her statue like demeanor and walked over to where Lincoln was sitting, then sat down next to him. She tried to wrap her arm around his shoulder but he pushed it off and looked away.

"Bro... you gotta quit being so hard on yourself."

"Why should I? She's not the only one who got hurt because I was being selfish. Or don't you remember what happened last year?"

Lynn briefly reminisced on what had happened just over six months ago now. Rita had tried to make Lincoln get some exercise and when it didn't work, she signed him up for football against his will. Lynn made a deal with him and they managed to fool the entire town and their family, making them think that Lynn was actually Lincoln. But their plan came to a screeching halt when Lynn got hurt in the last game of the season. She broke her ankle and Lincoln was grounded from video-games and comic books until Lynn could play sports again.

Lynn snapped back after pausing to think, "That was different!"

"How was it any different?! You got hurt because I was only thinking about myself! And now, the same thing happened today with Leni!"

"That was different because I wanted to do it. I was at least half to blame for what happened!"

"You know what? You're right. That makes this situation even worse!"

"How? The way you're describing it, how is this situation any worse than what happened last year?!"

"Because in this situation, how is Leni to blame?!"

The sudden outburst caught everyone's attention. Rita and Lynn Sr looked in his direction briefly then turned their gaze back to the police officers, who also looked over for a moment. Lori started making her way over followed by the rest of the ones that were there.

"What's going on?"

"Big surprise..." Lincoln started, standing back up again. "You just can't leave me alone? Can you?"

"You're right! We can't, because we're a family. It's what we're supposed to do."

"Sure... but all Lori has to do is close her door to get some privacy..." Lincoln mumbled.

"Don't say that! You know that's not the case anymore!"

"Whatever..." He paused, looking back and forth between his sisters' faces. "I'm going home..."

Lincoln put his hands in his pocket and started making his way back towards the house. They tried to follow him, but were stopped. Lynn was the last one they expected to defend their brother, but she had her reasons for doing so.

"Lynn? What are you doing?"

"Listen guys, he thinks it's his fault that Leni got kidnapped. That's why he's acting like this..." Nobody understood why, but they all understood his actions now.

"And... to be honest..." Lynn nervously started, "He kind of made some good points..."

"Wait... what?"

"What do you mean?"

Lynn told them what he said, from the moment she walked up to him, to the point where they all drove him off. Every time they wanted to make a rebuttal, Lynn told them something that answered their question and by the end of her lecture, all of them kind of believed that it really was Lincoln's fault, and they felt so guilty for it. He already felt bad enough for it, and if he found out that his sisters agreed, at least to some extent, it would destroy any confidence he had of trying to fix it, if he even had any.

Lincoln didn't look back after he started walking. They may have thought that he was mad at them, but he wasn't. He was only angry at himself. He knew it wasn't right to yell like that, but it was the only way that he could get them to leave him alone, and so far, it was working, even if it was just for a moment. Lynn would undoubtedly tell them what he said and before long they would come running to try to convince him otherwise. He wasn't going to let that happen just yet though. Just before starting his sprint, he looked back to see if any of his sisters were behind him. As luck would have it, they were still talking to each other. He ran and didn't stop until he got to his room and shut the door behind him. No one could see him now. He could do whatever he wanted. So he went to his bed, shoved his face in his pillow, and started crying.

* * *

"Please officer, if there's anything that we can do to help find our little girl, don't hesitate to ask us. Any of us!"

"Don't worry. They've assigned the best detective to the job. He takes cases like this personally. He'll find your daughter."

"Okay. You'll contact us as soon as you find her right?"

"When she's found, you will be the first ones to know."

"Thank you so much officer."

"It's my pleasure ma'am."

And with that, the police officers were on their way back to the station. It was now past ten-thirty and it was time for all of them to go to sleep. None of them could though. Not with Leni still out there. They all laid restless in their beds, doing something to try to force themselves to go to sleep. Lisa was solving quadratic equations in her head. Lola was mentally going through her pageant routine. Lana was tending to her pets. Lucy was writing poems about death. Lynn was throwing a ball against the wall. Luan was studying her material. Luna was playing the air guitar while listening to music. Lori was just staring at Leni's empty bed. She couldn't seem to get her mind off of anything else. They had shared a room for as long as she could remember, and now that the room was all hers, even if it might have been for just a few nights, she realized that she didn't want it that way.

Lincoln was still laying in his bed with his face buried in his pillow, thinking about the things that could be happening to Leni right now. The dampness would have been uncomfortable to anyone else, but Lincoln didn't care, he didn't even feel it. He wasn't about to be bothered by anything or anyone. And not just because he wouldn't have let anyone bother him. His sisters were all thinking about Leni right now. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before. A few days ago, just the thought of it would have been considered crazy. Now that it happened, it didn't seem crazy anymore. It was downright scary. If it happened to Leni, it could have happened to any of them.

Nothing about this made Lincoln feel any better. Not only did he convince himself that it was his fault, but if he was right, the reason his sisters were leaving him alone was because he convinced Lynn that it was at least partially his fault, and she convinced the rest of them. None of them wanted it to be his fault, but no matter how they looked at it, it seemed like he was at least partially to blame. If they were all convinced, then there was no way that they could un-convince him of it. Lincoln was to blame. He believed it, and his sisters believed it. As much as they wanted to, neither he, nor they were able to deny it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, 1000 views on my "No such Luck" AU story in less than a day. Not bad at all. I didn't think it would get that kind of reaction because I'm putting most of my energy into this story. Anyway, here's the next chapter. We get to see Leni in this one, but she's not home just yet.**

 **Thanks for the support on all of my stories. I really appreciate it! Enjoy this chapter of Kidnapped.**

* * *

The house that Leni woke up in smelled terrible and was clouded with smoke. She could see two guys that were in white T-shirts smoking something about twenty-five feet away from her in the kitchen, but didn't really know, or care what it was. The only thing that was on her mind at the moment was trying to get out of there as soon as possible. The place was a disgusting mess with singed clothes and cigarette butts all over the floor. It was not a place that she wanted to stay.

Leni first noticed that there were thick, twine ropes keeping her bound to a folding chair and a gag in her mouth, keeping her from saying anything. The gag tasted like sweat and more smoke. It was just enough to make her want to throw up, but not bad enough to actually make her throw up. Suppressing her sense of smell, which was all but gone by now, she looked around to see if there was anything that she could use to her advantage, but didn't find anything. There was a small knife on the ground a few feet away, but she couldn't get to that without making any noise of some kind. She was tied to the chair with no way to escape. So, she did the only thing she knew that she could do, and tried squirming herself out of it.

There was a show she watched when she was a kid called "The Jiggles." A few times, she saw an episode where the four main characters had the jiggles and couldn't stop moving around. The way to get rid of it was to shake around until you shook the jiggles all out. Reminiscing back to that episode, she started shaking and wiggling around, trying to loosen the ropes. A few minutes passed and she managed to do just that, while at the same time, not grabbing the attention of her kidnappers. The ropes were still fairly tight though and weren't going anywhere anytime soon. But, the two men were still in the kitchen smoking, completely oblivious to Leni's escape attempt.

More struggling ensued, which proved to be fruitless. There was no way that she would be able to escape without making any noise. So she started rocking the chair side to side, hoping to loosen the ropes enough to where she could escape. She started off small at first, not rocking it too far for fear of making too much noise, but when she felt it loosen some more, she slowly started rocking it more violently. It was working and she felt it loosen significantly, but she rocked too far to the side and tipped herself and the chair over, making a loud thud on the ground. The two guys immediately turned around to see her still struggling to get out.

"Looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up."

Leni froze when she heard that voice. It wasn't a normal sounding voice. It wasn't a voice that sounded sinister. It was a real low and raspy voice and it was beyond terrifying. Leni had seen horror movies before and expected a voice like the killer would have from both of them. But the voice she just heard was more than just a killer's voice. It had a darker undertone to it, a lustful undertone. There was nothing she could do but watch as the two figures walked over to where she was. Looking in their eyes for the first time made her start crying immediately. The eyes of not just men with hostile intentions, but with a glassy twinkle. It was those eyes that made Leni start sobbing. A look on his face that said, "I do whatever I want." Leni was horrified and they didn't even do anything to her yet. They untied the ropes and grabbed each of her arms, tightly. Tears were now streaming down her eyes, yet without any noise coming from her mouth. With eyes that could make even the toughest of men weak in the knees, a sixteen year old girl looking at them, almost couldn't do anything. They dragged her to the couch, where they threw her down. The two men stood there in front of her, menacingly, staring up and down her body, planning the things they were planning on doing. Leni started shaking nervously, dreading what was going to happen next. The same, raspy, low, ominous voice of the one on the left scared Leni and she whimpered as he spoke.

"We're going to have lots of fun tonight sweetheart."

* * *

The night went by and not a single person in the Loud house got any real sleep despite their best efforts. Lincoln was taking it harder than the rest of them, as he felt the most responsible for what happened. After all, he was there and didn't do anything. He could have been a hero, but now, he felt like he was the villain and it was terrible. But there was someone else who also felt to blame, although she didn't say much about it until she turned in for the night. Rita too, was feeling guilty for what had happened. She was the one who told Lincon and Leni to go get some excersize, and if it wasn't for her telling them that, nothing bad would have ever happened to them. Her second daughter would be safe and sound in their home, probably working on some new dress that she had.

All of the different things that could possibly be happening to Leni raced through Rita's mind. The worst of which remained stuck. Stuck in her mind as if to haunt her for thinking about her childrens' well being. That made it okay, right? After all, they had all gone to the park tons of times, many times the older ones were by themselves, and at night as well. Not only did nothing ever happen to them, but they never saw anything happening to someone else either. The neighborhood they were in was known as one of the safest in Royal Woods. Yet out of the thousands of children that could have been kidnapped instead, it was one of her own.

Rita sank down on the bed in her nighttime clothes and picked up a book that she had been reading. It wasn't one of those parenting advice books that never end up helping. It was just a book to read for fun. A book to help you go to sleep at night. She opened it to the page she had just stopped on, which was marked with a plain black bookmark. She started reading once she found her spot, but was constantly distracted. Not by noises outside of her room or the house, but by thinking about Leni. Maybe she thought that reading would help her to calm down a little bit, but it didn't work. All it did was make her feel worse for trying to ignore the problem. So instead of trying to force herself to keep reading, she put the book down, not even reading a paragraph, and laid back on the bed, closing her eyes to try to get some sleep.

"Rita, are you asleep yet?" The sound of her husband mad her open her eyes and sit up.

"No, I was trying though, I just can't seem to fall asleep."

"I don't blame you. After what happened tonight, I don't think any of us will get much sleep, if we even get any."

"Yeah..." she silently agreed. At this point, a battle was going on in her mind, a battle of whether or not to tell Lynn sr what she thought about the whole situation. He was her husband, why shouldn't he know what she was thinking. She didn't want to tell him though. Despite knowing how kind of a person he can be, she always had the slightest doubt that if she said something, that he would snap at her. She didn't want to tell him about how she thought that she was to blame, at least partly.

"Something on your mind?" he asked after an unnaturally long silence. Rita let out a sigh and put a hand to her forehead. She didn't realize how long she had been silent for. It definately wasn't normal for there to be silence in the Loud house. Even they, in their own room, would talk to each other about their day before they went to sleep, and share funny stories about what happened at work. But not this night. They had both been silent for at least five minutes, something that was unheard of, except in the dead of night, in the Loud house.

"Other than the obvious?"

"Whatever you're willing to tell me about."

She sighed again and started, "I was only trying to get them to excersize... I didn't think this would happen..."

"Ahh... you feel guilty for what happened."

"Why shouldn't I? I was the one who told them to go out there."

"Because you didn't intend for that to happen."

"But it still happened anyway."

"Honey, evil people will always do evil things, regardless of what anyone could try to do to prevent them. It just so happened..." Lynn Sr stopped for a moment to recompose himself. Just thinking about his daughter at this time made him choke up. "It just so happened that Leni was the unlucky one who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's nothing we can do to prevent situations like that from happening. If they happen, then they happen and there's not anything we can do to undo it."

"Then why do I feel so guilty?"

"Because it's a natural reaction for something like this. I'm her father for goodness sake, I felt guilty too when it first happened, but we have to move past it. Leni needs as much help as she can get and she's not gonna get that help, if all we're doing, is sitting here, thinking about what we could have done, instead of acting on what we can still do."

Rita smiled, taking in the words that her husband offered. He was right. She couldn't help Leni just sitting there, sulking over what happened. They had to help in the best way that they could. And right now, that was letting the police do their job.

"Besides, how would we be an example to the rest of the kids if all we did was feel sorry for ourselves?"

She sighed. "You're right... I need to stop feeling so guilty. It's not gonna help us find Leni."

"Attagirl. Now we need to get some sleep, or... we need to try anyway."

They gave each other a quick peck, turned the lights off, and made an attempt to sleep. Neither of them were able to get any real sleep. None of the kids got any sleep either. Aside from Lincoln and maybe Lori, Rita had it the worst. Despite her husband's reassurances, there was still this nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her that she was to blame. All night she kept telling herself to move past it. Move past it for Leni's sake.

Lincoln, however, was a mess.

He didn't do anything all night. It was impossible for him to think about anything else. Now that his sisters all knew what he thought about the situation, he expected any of them to come in and try to help him through it, like they knew how he was feeling. They couldn't possibly have any idea. It wasn't their fault that Leni was gone. He was the one to blame and there was no way around it, not to him anyway. Sure, it would have been easy to say that it was the video-game distracting him, but that was foolish to think. Lincoln was the one who messed up, not the video-game.

He sat up in his bed and scratched his head. Nobody had tried coming into his room in more than an hour. Lincoln didn't know if this was good or bad. It either meant that he got through to them and decided to leave him alone, or that he was actually able to convince Lynn that it was his fault, and she, in turn, convinced the rest of them. He walked up to the door of his room and opened it. Peering out, he saw that the lights were turned off and nobody was even making their way towards his room. He closed the door and slumped back on his bed, returning to his thoughts.

He wasn't pondering who to blame it on anymore. He had moved past it by now and could only think about Leni. What was possibly happening to her? Once again, only the worst thoughts went through his mind, all of them jumbled together, but never able to escape. How badly did Leni get hurt? What would she look like when she came back? Would she be covered in bruises? In cuts and wounds? How was this going to affect her? Would she come back a different person? The Leni that Lincoln always knew could come back with a totally different feel about her. It scared him. But nothing scared him more than the prospect that she might not come back, and the more he thought about it, the more he began to break down. If Leni didn't come back, Lincoln would never be able to forgive himself.

The door to his room opened slowly. "About time..." he thought to himself. Luna came into the room and stood in the doorway before closing it. She sighed before finally saying something.

"I'm not gonna pretend like you might be okay."

"Lynn told you what happened?"

"She told all of us what happened, except mom and pop."

Lincoln groaned then waited before saying anything. When Luna didn't speak up, he looked over at her. She had a look on her face, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you gonna try to convince me that what happened wasn't my fault? That I'm just being ridiculous? Cause it's not gonna work."

"Ten bucks says it will," she replied with a smirk

"I don't have ten bucks," Lincoln replied with a similar smirk, and before he could say anything else Luna chimed in.

"You don't have to have anything. I'll give you ten bucks if it doesn't work and if it does work and you lose, then you don't have to give me anything."

Lincoln was intrigued at the prospect of getting money. He didn't think it was possible for anyone to convince him that he wasn't to blame. He chuckled for a moment then told her, "Go for it. I'd like to see you try."

Without a moment of hesitation, she said, "If it's your fault, like you say, then tell me why you kidnapped Leni."

What? Did she just accuse him of kidnapping her? The response took Lincoln completely by surprise. He didn't kidnap Leni. It was those thugs that took her away. Even if he did kidnap her, where would he hide her? What kind of idiot kidnaps someone then hides them in their own house?

"What do you mean?"

"It's not that hard. If you're the one to blame, then that means you kidnapped her, right?"

"What? No, I didn't kidnap her... What are you..."

Luna interrupted before he could finish. "Well then it wasn't your fault."

"Oh..." Lincoln's look of confusion that had formed on his face went away when he finally understood what she was getting at and he just went back to staring at the wall. Yes, she was right. Lincoln was not responsible for kidnapping Leni, hence it wasn't his fault that she got kidnapped, but that wasn't why he felt guilty for losing her. "I could have made a difference though. If never brought my video-game with me, I could have done something to stop her from getting kidnapped. Even if she still did get kidnapped, doing something would have been better than doing nothing. That's why I feel guilty."

Luna put her hand to her forehead and thought for a moment before finally responding to Lincoln's comment, "Okay, I get it. You were doing something that you knew you weren't supposed to do and it meant that you could have made a difference when it mattered. But the fact still remains that you didn't do it. It's not because of you that Leni got kidnapped. Besides, what if you did decide to play the hero and _you_ ended up getting kidnapped too? What if whatever is happening to Leni right now, was also happening to you?"

"I'd rather be going through it with her knowing that I helped in any way I could."

"I would rather you not." Luna's response was so quick, it was like she knew what Lincoln was going to say.

"All of us would rather you not. Because then it would be both of you out there instead of just one of you."

The words gave Lincoln a well needed slap to the face. Sure, if he could've helped, Leni might have been safe. But if he did help, he ran the risk of getting kidnapped and then two Louds would be missing instead of just one. The saying goes that two heads are better than one, but not in this case.

"Don't get me wrong bro. I hate it just as much as everyone else that it had to be Leni that was kidnapped. But if both of you were kidnapped, I don't know what I would do."

Luna then left the room to let Lincoln think about it. She may not have been the most eloquent talker, but when she needed to make a point, she could do it. Lincoln laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about his sister's words. It was true. The more he thought about it, the more he agreed. If he was forced to choose between one sibling getting kidnapped and two receiving the same fate, he would rather it be just one of them. He had been thinking about himself and how he would rather be with her, but realizing that all of his other siblings were suffering in a similar way that he was, gave him second thoughts about it.

That being said, he still believed it was his fault that Leni got kidnapped. She didn't change her mind. If he ever got over that, he would enjoy those ten dollars. But money didn't have any real impact on him right now. He kept telling himself that it was his fault that Leni got kidnapped.

The night rolled by as slow as it possibly could. Nobody got any real sleep. The entire night was like one big power nap, staying on the border between consciousness and complete slumber. None of them had any dreams. None of them had any nightmares. None of them got out of their beds. They just forced themselves through the night, waiting for some kind of sign that Leni was okay. Waiting in vain, then waking up in the morning to find that the events of last night had really transpired. Leni really was gone.

* * *

Leni woke up in the early morning hours of the day. Her body was covered in bruises and scratches. She didn't remember much of what had happened the previous night, but based on the fact that there was a knot on her head and she was sleeping on the ground, it was safe to say that she had been knocked out quite violently. Many things raced through her mind as she woke herself up. Leni shuddered as she slowly started remembering what had happened the previous night. Those two men did things to her that she didn't even think was possible. Their lustful desire made them crazy, but it wasn't the actions of them that haunted Leni. The evil faces of the two men had been burned into her mind. Their eyes seemed to come straight from satan himself. If this wasn't hell on earth, then what was?

She slowly dragged herself up to her feet and looked around the room that was barely illuminated by the sun peeking over the horizon. Most of the smoke had cleared out of the room, although some of it still lingered; not that it mattered. The house still smelled really sour, even without the smoke in it. The pain she felt from what happened the previous night was tremendous, almost too much to even move. But she forced herself into it.

Before moving forward, she caught a glance of an open door and heard snoring come from it and also saw two bodies that were slumped in two seperate beds. Leni, still half asleep, leaned forward and began shuffling towards the couch that was now positioned on the far edge of the room. At first, she just wanted to sit down and collect her thoughts for a moment, but something on the couch quickly snapped her out of it and she froze in place, shaking. If it weren't for the fact that seeing it made her remember where she was and what she had to do, she would have collapsed to the ground right there. She slowly looked down at herself, as if to confirm what she remembered happening. If being in a stranger's house wasn't enough to affirm it, the fact that she woke up without anything on definitely did. Leni was now fully awake, and realized what had happened.

Adrenaline coursed through her body and she snatched her classic teal dress from off of the couch and put it on as fast as she could, forgetting about everything else. Not wasting any time, she opened the front door of the house and ran outside, slamming it shut as she did. She had to get away from there as fast as she could. If the two men that abducted her gave chase, then she needed to be far enough away from them to where they wouldn't find her. Leni ran and didn't stop running, nor did she slow her pace until she saw a familiar place. A safe place. Safer than that house was anyway. By now, the sun had risen above the city skyline and was casting it's shadows on the Royal Woods community center. Leni had been here for many of Lynn's sporting events and she also came here for a yoga class she did once a month. She didn't go in though. Instead, she instinctively reached into her pocket to get her phone and miraculously found it. How did it not fall out of her dress? She didn't even know she had it.

Instantly she dialed 911, the only phone number she had memorized and called it. Immediately, the lady on the other end picked up.

"911, what's your emergency."

"Please... I need help. Send a police man to the royal woods uhh... community center as soon as you can. My name is Leni Loud and last night I was... I... something happened last night... and uh..."

"Don't worry about it ma'am, we have a police officer on the way to come get you. He'll be there in just a few minutes."

"Th... Thank you..." She stuttered and hung up.

Just a few minutes was too long for the teenager. Leni nervously paced around the front entrance of the center, waiting for the police officer to arrive. It was so nerve wracking waiting for him to get there. What if he didn't make it soon enough? If the two men were behind her, then she didn't have much time. Those two would stop at nothing to get their "prize," and Leni knew it. It scared her even more when she thought of it and again, the eyes of the strangers ran through her mind. Those evil eyes had been burned into her brain and she sat down as panic overtook her.

A few minutes passed and finally, she saw some flashing lights off in the distance right as she was calming down and thought that she was safe. But right when she saw the police car making the turn onto the main road just a few hundred feet away, she also heard someone yelling from behind her.

"There she is!"

"Aww HELL NO! She ain't gettin' away this time."

Leni got another rush of adrenaline and started sprinting in the direction of the police officer. The two guys had started sprinting after her at this point too, with the same lustful look in their eyes. Leni dared not look back to see it, but instead continued forward, pumping her legs as fast as they could, maybe a little too fast. Her mind forced her legs to run faster than they could handle. They couldn't keep up and it made her stumble. The stumble made her lose balance and she tripped and fell to the ground, rolling and skidding forwards on the concrete sidewalk. Her knees and elbows were scraped up badly now and blood was dripping down onto the sidewalk. She was able to roll herself over before seeing the two men's faces again. Their greedy stare penetrated her very being and she started shaking again. Fear had found it's way into Leni's mind as they reached down for her. She shrieked and flinched as the two men grabbed her shoulders and started carrying her away.

"Where did the police man go?" she asked herself. Right then, the two men that were dragging her away, stopped for a moment and let go of leni. She fell to the ground and sat up with her hands behind her, holding her up. She wasn't paying attention to what they said or did, all she knew was that hopefully, this whole thing was about to come to an end. Leni didn't see much, but she did see her kidnappers start running towards the police officers, then, following several loud cracks, the two guys went limp and fell to the ground, leaving Leni sitting on the concrete with the two of them unable to move in front of her. What just happened.

"Are you okay ma'am?"

The two police officers came into view and were standing about fifteen feet in front of her. Leni stayed uncharacteristically silent, still scarred from what had just happened. She was glued to the ground and was too tired and horrified to even move. They knew that they weren't going to be getting much out of her and they walked closer to try and help her up. When they got her to her feet, she just collapsed, falling on her knees. They sat her back down on the ground and knelt next to her. She studied the face of the officer who had quite possibly, just saved her life.

"Could I get your name ma'am?"

"Umm... Leni Loud..." she responded.

The two officers recognized the name and looked at her with a rather startled expression on their face. She didn't know this, but these officers were the same ones who had responded to a call the previous night about a young teenager who had been kidnapped. The same officers who filed the report for a Miss Leni Loud.

* * *

"Ugh... this shift is so boring Jenson. All we ever do is sit here..."

"Chill out, just try to relax Cal..."

"I don't like relaxing, It makes me feel like we're earning money for nothing."  
"We'll live dude. Not everyone can take the exciting day shift. Besides, we had that one thing at the beginning of the night."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. It was an interesting case too."

"I know right. I feel so sorry for that family, there's so many of them!"

"It's a crazy world we live in dude."

Just then, they got an alert for someone calling 911, "Finally, some action. Let's go!"

The two officers ran out to their vehicle and made their way to the location of the call. They didn't know who called, nor did they know why they were going, they were just told to go. The location was the Royal Woods community center. Despite the fact that both of them had responded to dozens of 911 calls in the several years that they had been there, both of them were still nervous every time. Most of the calls were for car wrecks or something like that, some of them were just people freaking out over nothing. Rarely did they ever get a call that required something more than jotting a few things down. It did happen though, and when something exciting did happen, they were more than ready for it.

"Okay, we're coming up on the center now. Do you see anything?"

"Not yet... Wait... Who is she?"

Looking more closely they both saw a young woman, most likely in her teens, running away from two guys who looked like they were either hungover, stoned, or both. The woman was barefooted and was wearing a teal dress and the two guys were wearing some beat up, red and blue, plaid, button up shirts. Both of them were chasing the woman with a look in their eyes that would given even the most hardened criminals chills. What kind of people were they? Kidnapping and then raping teenagers. The worst part was that they looked like they didn't have any regrets.

Jenson, who was driving, floored it and the engine roared. They made it only a few seconds late, as the two men were now dragging the poor girl on the ground back towards the house where they were staying. Cal and Jenson stopped the car and ran over to help the girl as fast as they could.

"Stop right there!"

"I'm sorry officers, but we are very busy right now. Now could you please move out of our way?" and they merely continued on their path. Jenson got furious at this comment. What kind of idiot who is obviously doing something wrong talks back to a police officer? He pulled out his gun, turned the safety off, and directed it at the man who was talking back to him. He stood there like a statue, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do.

"I said STOP!" Cal took his gun out as well and pointed it at the other man who hadn't said a word.

"And I said could you please move!"

"Let go of the lady, then we'll talk..."

"Fine. So be it." Both of the men let go of Leni, reached down to their shoes and pulled out small knives, then started running towards the officers. Jenson and Cal suddenly stiffened up for a second as a burst of adrenaline went through their veins. Neither of them had ever been in a situation where they had to shoot someone, but the law says that if a civilian attacks a police officer in any way, then the police officer has the right to open fire on said civilian. And after the initial shot of energy which froze them up, they were ready to do just that. But what if they hit the lady who had already been so brutally beaten up? She had already been through so much. If they opened fire and accidentally hit her, not only would there be a terrible lawsuit, but they wouldn't be able to forgive themselves for it. Neither would the Lady's family. Their choice, unfortunately, was made for them when the other two men were suddenly less than six feet away and running at almost full speed.

The sound of the guns firing rippled through the air, waking up everyone in a five-hundred meter radius who wasn't already up yet. The two unknown men collapsed to the ground. Cal slowly put his gun down. He knew that what he did was not only legal for an officer to do, but was also legal for a civilian. Yet killing a man for the first time, and not just as a police officer, was a totally different mountain. He walked over to the wall of the nearby building, shaking, trying to calm down and comprehend what just happened. Jenson, even though this was his first time he has had to shoot someone, let alone kill them, had been in similar situations before. It was those situations where he didn't know if he would take the shot that made him that made him realize what he needed to do the next time. He was ready and prepared for this, so he swallowed his anxiety and got ready to help the young woman, who was still sitting up in the same position she was in a few seconds ago. He didn't know if he was okay after that, but she was their main priority right now. She was the one who had been wronged, not them.

"Are you okay ma'am?"

What kind of question was that? Of course she wasn't okay. Jenson mentally beat himself up for saying that, but because he already asked, he waited for her to answer. All she did was look up at him with a blank look on her face, as if she was still trying to understand what just happened. He didn't blame her one bit. After all, she couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen. No one, especially a teenager should have to experience something like this.

"Could I get your name ma'am?"

"Umm... Leni Loud..." she told him.

Why was that name so familiar to the both of them. It wasn't like they had ever met this girl before. Did they meet someone she knew? Did they meet her family? Who was she? It took them a while, but their minds eventually caught up with them and it clicked. This was the teenager who was kidnapped last night, and these two guys, now laying on the ground with bullets in their chests, were the ones who kidnapped her.

* * *

 **So, we finally get to the reason that this story is rated the way it is. Thanks again to all for reading and Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks again to everyone for all the support on this story. This chapter is not going to be as exciting as the previous ones, but I still hope y'all will like it anyway. Please leave a review for it and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

"Where's Leni?" Lincoln asked as he looked behind him. His gaze turned from his video-game to the scene unfolding before him. A while van was parked on the side of the road and there were two men getting out of it. They looked right at Lincoln and started walking briskly towards him. Lincoln's eyes went wide and he tried to run, but found himself unable to move. As the two men got closer, Lincoln's heart started beating faster and faster until they walked right by him, as if they were phasing through him. He could suddenly move again and turned himself around to see his older sister on the ground, blood spilling from the cut on her forehead.

"Stop it!" Lincoln yelled as he tried to rush forward, but once again, was unable to. He was frozen in place, just watching his sister get beaten by two unknown faces. His eyes started watering up as he couldn't help but just stand by and watch as Leni was being pounded, blood spraying from her mouth with every punch thrown. Again, he tried with all of his strength to move forward to just try and help, but couldn't. His feet were glued to their spot and his eyes were filled with tears as he watched those two men wail on Leni mercilessly.

"Lincoln, help me!"

"I can't. I can't move.

"Please Lincoln, do something!"

Both of their gazes met. The eyes that he always looked to when he needed comforting, the eyes that never displayed any sadness or hatred, the eyes that were only ever loving, were now full of fear and pain. Her stare pierced into his heart and he felt himself start to break down. Lincoln tried closing his eyes, but with his body not in his control, he was forced to look on as the situation played itself out. He was forced to see the look of betrayal in his sister's eyes. The two men paused for a moment and looked back at Lincoln with an evil grin on their faces, as if they were in control of his mind, forcing him to stay planted on the ground where he was. One of them began striding up to him and stopped right in front of him. Then, kneeling in front of the boy, told him in a vicious whisper, "You're not going to do a thing... You can't."

"Lincoln, please..." Leni was barely able to squeak those words out and was now on the verge of passing out. Lincoln could only look on as the man kneeling down in front of him kept taunting him, torturing him.

"Leni..."

"Let's get outta here!"

The man who was in front of Lincoln stood up and They both started dragging Leni across the ground, gradually making their way around to the back of the van. They opened the white door and tossed her like a rag-doll. Lincoln could only watch in horror. He was completely broken by now, falling apart on the inside, yet unable to move on the outside. His tears had been falling down like rain while he watched, yet, he was unable to do a thing about it.

As the van drove off, everything around him turned completely black. In a wave like motion, the sky went dark all the way to the horizon, then the blackness spread it's way to the ground, rushing towards him like a Tsunami. The massive wave reached where the boy was standing and he was totally consumed by it, seeing nothing at all.

"Lincoln..."

The voice penetrated through the darkness. He turned his head in the direction it was coming from. There was nothing there, but could hear the echoes of it around him. He called out to it. "Leni!?"

"It's your fault..."

"I know it is!"

"You could have stopped it."

"I know... please... forgive me..."

Another voice pierced the shadowy vale. This one was different. It was much lower and much more menacing.

"Too late, the damage has been done."

"No, please. I didn't mean to. If I had known, I would have done something!."

"What would you have done?! Would you have been there? Or would you have just stood there, just watching like the coward you are?!"

"I... I would..." The hesitancy in Lincoln's voice scared even him. Was he really that brave? Would he really have risked his life to try and save his sister? Or would he have just stood there, frozen in fear?

"It doesn't matter anymore. You weren't there, and now, she's not coming back Lincoln."

"No... she has to..."

"She's never coming back."

"She... she will..."

"And it's all... because... of YOU!"

"AUGH!" Lincoln jumped awake and sat up in his bed. Sweat covered his brow and his heart was racing. It was just a dream. He had never had a nightmare like that one. A nightmare so terrible, so maniacal only seemed possible in movies. Still trying to catch his breath, he looked over at his clock. It was barely after six in the morning, earlier than he thought it was, so he laid back down on his bed to try and get those extra thirty minutes of sleep. He couldn't of course. His mind was wandering too much. That nightmare made him realize his own doubts. Obviously because he wasn't there he couldn't have done anything, but even if he was there, would he have helped? Would he have been able to overcome his selfishness and fear and be able to help her? Or would he have just stood there like a deer in headlights, staring in shock?

* * *

The sight of the two men falling to the ground dead eased Leni in no way. She was a gentle soul and would never hurt anyone on purpose, even if they deserved it. She even softened up to Frank, the spider that Lincoln brought home. That was her whole way of thinking and it had never been challenged before meeting those two monsters. Seeing them fall to the ground, completely lifeless, made her quiver with fear. Watching someone die, whether or not they deserved it, whether or not you did it, has a certain effect on people, and for Leni, because of her naturally kind-hearted spirit, this feeling was amplified ten or twenty-fold.

"How could someone be so mean as to take another person's life?"

"But, it was just self defense, so it's okay, right?"

"But how is killing someone necessary, even in self-defense?"

"But if they didn't, then you would just be right back where you were."

"Back in that house?"

"With the evil men, Yes."

"Not them..."

Her mind was suddenly filled with nothing but memories of the eyes of the two men. Those wicked, evil eyes penetrated her very being and forced her to start believing things that she didn't want to believe. It bothered her that the officers were forced to kill those men, but when she remembered what happened and how they made her feel, how much fear that they forced into her heart, combined with the fresh sight of watching two humans die, she began losing it. Her heart-rate increased dramatically and she started shivering. Everything was suddenly extremely noticable. She was aware of the fact that she couldn't move and she noticed every little change that happened in her body. She could feel every little shiver and every movement she made on accident. The quivering was still there, but she couldn't force herself to move. Not even a small nod could be made. Meanwhile the police officers had stopped trying to get her to react to anything and started getting worried.

"What's going on?" Jenson remarked.

"I've seen this before, it's an anxiety attack, and it looks bad."

"What do you mean?"

"When someone gets an anxiety attack, it means that..."

"I know what an anxiety attack is, but why does it look bad? It's not like this can kill her, right?"

Cal looked over at his coworker and gave a worried look. Jenson was not amused at this and asked again, suddenly getting the same sullen look on his face. "Right?"

Just the sight of someone dying had already made her brain kick into high gear, but when she remembered what happened to her, the stress became too much to handle. She was breathing hard, her heart was racing, and the shaking became more vigorous. The panic she was feeling was so intense that it gave her chest pains and made her start hyperventilating. Then, she started getting lightheaded, her vision and hearing started to give out, as her mind slowly slipped away. She suddenly lost consciousness and fell backwards on the concrete, making a dull thud as her head hit the ground. The last thing she remembered was seeing the worried faces of the officers before finally slipping away into a deep slumber.

* * *

"C'mon kids, you're gonna be late for school!"

After the events of the previous night, none of them were too ecstatic about doing anything, especially going to school. Even their parents didn't want to go to work, but these were things that they had to do whether Leni was there or not. Sure, their teachers might cut them some slack and Rita and Lynn Sr's bosses may take it easy on them, but they were still necessities. If it was the case that they would have to move on without their sister, they would need to be prepared to do so. None of them even considered the thought at this point and were just trying to establish a temporary routine while they waited for Leni to come back to them.

Nine kids piled into the family car they call, "vanzilla" and their mother did a head count. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine..." Rita put her hand to her chin and recounted the heads in the car. "Who's missing?" she finally asked. Everyone looked around for a moment, then looked at their mother with somber faces. There was a moment of awkward silence as they all sulked. Even Lucy was visibly more bothered than usual.

"Umm, mom?" Lori began. "It's Leni who's missing..."

She mentally cursed herself for forgetting such an important piece of information and gritted her teeth as she smacked her head. She looked at her oldest daughter and then back at the rest of the kids who were sitting quietly in the car, a rare event. "Sorry..."

It didn't mean that much to them. After all, their minds were on other things, especially Lincoln, who was still recovering from his nightmare. He couldn't get that horrible image out of his mind, no matter how hard he pushed. It just kept coming back to him, making him feel worse and worse. To him, there wasn't any doubting that it was his fault, but even if he could have helped, would he?

* * *

The school day had started without a hitch. All of the kids' teachers had been told what happened before he got to school that day so that they would know what to expect. Lincoln's teacher was just as surprised to hear this news as all the others were, but she had an idea as to how he would be acting to a certain degree, but she didn't expect him to be as down as he was. Once he got to school, he didn't do anything and just kept his arm up with his hand supporting his head. Tapping the desk was all that she saw him do. She understood that his sister had been kidnapped the night before and expected him to be down about it, but to her, this didn't look like sorrow, it looked like guilt. Guilt that didn't look like it was going to go away anytime soon. She wanted to ask him about it, to see what she could do to help him. Teachers are supposed to do that kind of thing. But she never did. She left him alone about it, fearing that confronting him would only make matters worse.

Lincoln wasn't paying attention at all in class. Despite having that nightmare to momentarily take his mind off of it, he was still too bothered by the events that transpired the previous night. He had a firm belief that it was his fault Leni got kidnapped, despite Luna and Lynn trying to convince him otherwise. Luna was convinced that she was able to do it, but it ended up not working. While Lincoln had to admit that she did make some good points, it still didn't cover up the fact that if Lincoln hadn't blatantly disobeyed his mother, Leni would at least be in a better situation than she was now.

He disobeyed his mother. She and his dad still had no idea that he went against their will. He was so distraught over losing his sister that he forgot to fess up. But did he really forget? Or was he once again just trying to make sure he didn't get into trouble? What was once a mere feeling of guilt turned into dread as he realized that he had to accept the punishment for what he did. Would they take the same route his sisters did and try to make him feel better, or would they openly blame him for it? Despite his sisters' actions, he had a feeling deep inside himself that made him think they would put all the blame on him.

His thought process behind his reasoning was actually really interesting. Every time something small happened, like a broken mirror, a hole in the wall, or even the toilet backing up, his sisters would be quick to point the blame to him, even if he didn't do it. His parents on the other hand, recognizing this, would try to find the source of the problem and eventually it would be settled. So when he tried to accept responsibility for his actions and his sisters tried to convince him it wasn't his fault, he thought that his parents would have the opposite reaction. He didn't think it would actually work like that, but his mind kept trying to tell him otherwise.

"Lincoln!"

"Hmm... Oh, sorry!"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the last thirty seconds now. Your parents are here to pick you up."

"What? Really?"

"Yes, really. They're waiting for you at the front office with a few of your other sisters."

"Oh... okay," Lincoln said as he started gathering his things then finally leaving the classroom.

"Have a nice day Lincoln!"

The white haired boy walked down the hallway and made a right turn into the main hallway where all the offices were. The main front office was less than a thirty second walk away from Lincoln's classroom. There were windows in the front of it to where everyone could easily see into it; not like the classrooms which had a tiny window in the door of each one. Anyone who was walking by the front office could easily see the desk in the middle of it and the person sitting at it. Today, it happened to be a woman by the name of Ms Smith, and she was sitting there, typing away at the computer. Off to the side, sitting on a bench were both of his parents and his five younger sisters. They all seemed excited enough to see him. Lana and Lola didn't seem to care about anything else but being able to get out of school early and Lisa looked like she was anxious to test something, as she always was when she wasn't, either in the car or already testing something. Lucy was just being her normal gloomy self and Lily was reaching towards her only brother, wanting to jump arms from her mother to his. Lincoln gladly accepted his little sister in his arms, all without saying a word. He noticed that his mom's eyes were a little red. Had she been crying?

"Well champ, ready to go?"

Lincoln was snapped out of his thoughts and jerked his head towards his father. He nodded and then followed the rest of his family out the door. All the while he wondered why he was being pulled out of school so early. There were so many things that it could have been, but the only reason that made sense seemed to go right over his head. He was so upset with himself that he wasn't even thinking straight. In fact, he was too busy feeling guilty for what he did, that he didn't even think that much about why he was pulled out of school. He was a little curious however.

"Why did you take us out of school?" he asked, getting into the back seat of the car.

"You're joking right?" Lola squealed, turning around to face her brother.

"Seriously? You don't know?" Lana started, making the same motion. "We're going to see Leni! They found her!"

"They did?"

"Uh-huh!"

Lincoln's face brightened up for the first time in what seemed like days. Knowing that his sister was safe was so relieving. But at the same time, he couldn't help but call himself an idiot. Of course they found Leni and they were taking them to go see her. That would be the only reason for taking them out of school. But where was she? Was she in the hospital? How badly hurt was she? Was she even conscious? All of these questions and more raced through Lincoln's mind. But there was one that was haunting him and would until he saw her. Did she blame him for it? The excited look on his face disappeared in just a few seconds as he remembered the state his sister could be in and he went back to sulking.

"Whassup bro?"

"Huh? Oh, hey Lynn." Lincoln didn't notice that Lynn had gotten in the car and sat right next to him. He didn't even notice that they stopped. His mind was on other things. Lynn gave her brother a puzzled look for a moment, wondering what was on his mind. He didn't even look up at her when she came in. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks and she sighed, scratching the back of her head trying to think of something to say.

"Okay dude," she started in a softer voice. After she made sure their parents weren't listening, she started back up. "I know you're kind of down because you feel like it was your fault that Leni got hurt, but you gotta stop worrying bro! Get excited! We're gonna go see our big sis! She's gonna be so happy to see us!"

"She's not gonna be happy to see me," Lincoln thought, but he just sat there in silence, acting like he wasn't listening. He heard all of it, there was no doubt about it, but responding to her would only make him feel worse about the situation. It would only force him to think about it more, which in turn, would make his mood that much worse, so he didn't. He kept quiet and stared down towards the floorboards of the van. Lynn wouldn't take it though. She knew her brother and she knew that he was trying to avoid responding. So she slapped him in the face. It was just hard enough to take him by surprise, but not hard enough to actually cause any pain. He jumped when her hand made contact with his cheek and then stared her down.

"I know you heard me. Say something!"

Lincoln sighed and rolled his eyes then looked back down. He looked over at his sister for a moment before looking back down at the ground. When he looked back up at her after a few seconds, he finally replied, "You're not gonna let this go until I say something, are you?"

"Heck no."

"Fine," Lincoln took a deep breath in and prepared himself to speak. "What if Leni blames me for it and won't forgive me?"

"That was easy..." Lynn muttered to herself. "Dude, do you even know Leni? She's not gonna blame you for it. And even if she did, of course she'll forgive you. You gotta stop feeling sorry for yourself bro, even you think it was your fault."

Lynn was never the best at comforting her siblings. That title belonged to Leni, with Lincoln being the runner up. But she had a few good moments. If Lincoln wasn't totally convinced that it was his fault, if he hadn't been so blinded by his own rage at himself, then this would have been one of them, but his stubbornness made it otherwise. He didn't feel any better.

Lynn could tell she wasn't getting anywhere and just stopped trying, "You're at least going to join us, right? You're not gonna make us go in without you, are you?"

"No... I'll go in," he lied. "I'll go see her."

"Hmm, I don't believe you. That's why I'm gonna drag you in with me. Heh heh."

"Dang it..." Lincoln groaned. He didn't count on Lynn forcing him to go in. He thought that if he stayed quiet he wouldn't have to lie to them. But Lynn just had to insist on butting in again. He couldn't believe how nosy his sisters were. All of them were like this. Not just Lynn, but Lola, Lana, Lisa, Lori, Lucy, Luan, Luna, and even Leni.

Even Leni...

The one thing that he hoped wouldn't get the better of him, especially in a situation like this, ended up rearing its ugly head. It was true what he was thinking, it was true that his sisters were nosy, but not only was he just as nosy as they were, but he was only thinking about himself. He wasn't thinking about how they were just trying to make him feel better, he was only ever annoyed when they butted in. He wouldn't have cared normally, but the fact that he dared to blame Leni for something at a time like this made him feel even worse. Once again, his selfishness got the better of him.

Lincoln was so troubled that he, once again, didn't notice that they stopped, and also didn't notice that Lori, Luna, and Luan got into the car. Naturally, they all tried talking to him about it, despite being several rows away, but to no avail. He didn't want to hear any of it. He just wanted to keep to himself, and hope that nobody noticed him, or his mood.

"Okay gang, we're here. Let's go see your sister!"

"Come on Lincoln, you're not gonna weasel your way out of this."

"Fine..." Lincoln reluctantly got up and jumped out of the car, slowly walking towards the entrance to the Royal Woods Hospital along with the rest of his family. Anticipation mounted for all of them as they approached the front entrance. As great as it was that they were gonna get to see their sister, they almost didn't want to. They didn't want to see the bruises covering her body. None of them wanted to hear about the terrible things that might have happened to her. Lori and Luna were the most anxious, as they were the ones who fully understood what could happen in a situation like this. Luan, Lynn, and Lincoln knew about what could happen in a hostage situation, but only expected it from the worst of the worst, not from your average criminal that could be caught in less than a day. Everyone under Lincoln's age, with the exception of Lisa, only knew that being kidnapped was bad and that you could get hurt from it. Lisa had to do studies of kidnapping for her Ph D, so she knew all about the different circumstances that Leni could be in, but at the same time, being only four, couldn't fully grasp the concept of those things. She only saw it as another chance to study.

"Hi miss!" Lana chirped at the lady behind the front counter.

"Well hello there! Who are you here to see?"

"We wanna see our sister Leni!"

"Yes," Rita started. "We would like to know where Leni Loud is."

* * *

"Okay gang, now remember, Leni isn't in great shape. She's probably very tired from all that has happened, so don't crowd her immediately, okay?"

"Got it dad. We won't!"

"Okay good. Now, we're going to let you guys see her. We're going to have a quick talk with the doctor about how Leni is doing and then we'll join you, okay? Lori, make sure they all behave!"

"I will! Okay guys, lets go see Leni."

Rita handed Lily to Lori and she opened the door to the hospital room and let everyone else in before following the rest of them while their parents walked off to the side to chat with the doctor who was standing just to the left of the room. Their minds all raced as they went in, wondering what kind of story Leni had to tell. It definitely wouldn't be the nicest story by any means, but still one to tell nonetheless. Even the older ones were hesitant to think that anything serious happened to her. Leni was their sister, nothing too bad could ever happen to her, right?

* * *

 **Before you write any reviews, I know that this chapter was kind of slow. Things will heat up some more in the next one. I do still appreciate your reviews, (as long as they are constructive) and would love to get more insight as to how I'm doing as a writer. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd also like to know how to make the more caring scenes have a bigger impact, because I know that that's one of the reasons this chapter is kind of slow.**

 **Thanks again to everyone who read it and please leave a review, even if this new chapter didn't strike you as amazing like some of the previous chapters might have.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well thanks to everyone for your support for my stories. Before you begin reading, I'd like to ask you to leave a review when you're done. I want to know how to improve in the future. Also, just in case you didn't read the footnote for my other story, I'll go ahead and say it here too. I'm going to be putting my personal ending of requiem on hiatus for a while so that I can finish this story. I actually really like the way it's going so far and I hope you will all enjoy it as well. With all that being said, here is chapter five of "Kidnapped."**

* * *

Chapter 5

"Leni!" the twins exclaimed, jumping on their older sister.

"Ouch!" Hearing that was their cue to get off. They both got overly excited to see their sister after she had disappeared last night and being the rambunctious six-year-olds they were, had way too much energy for Leni to handle right now.

"I'm sorry Leni!"

"Are you okay?"

Leni chuckled a bit. "I'm like, fine guys. The doctor told me that everything is going to hurt for a while because of um... uhhh..."

Leni glanced over at Lori with an expression of concern on her face and the oldest Loud sibling immediately knew what she was doing. Leni may not have been smart, but she knew exactly what happened to her. Leni knew that she had been raped, even if she would have preferred not to know that. Lori gave back the same expression and shook her head back and forth while mouthing, "Don't tell them!"

"Umm, because of what happened."

"What happened Leni?!"

"Umm..." Once again, Leni looked to her older sister who was shaking her head back and forth again. "The guys that kidnapped me... hit me really hard, like, A LOT!"

What Leni said was true. She was hit several times by them and the bruises on her face and arms proved that, but she was still hiding something. The only ones who didn't suspect that anything more was going on were Lucy, the twins, and Lily, who were all too young to even know about those things. Lisa was the exception of the younger ones for obvious reasons. Even though he knew about those things, Lincoln didn't think that Leni had been sexually assaulted, but for sure knew that she was hiding something more from them, only to spare the innocence of the littler kids though. Despite the fact that Lincoln felt to blame for this whole situation, he didn't want to believe that the worst could happen and even went so far as to actually trick his conscience into thinking that there was no way it could have happened. He didn't even think it was possible for someone to abuse Leni like that, despite the fact that he didn't even have the tiniest shred of evidence to prove otherwise.

"Why would someone do something like that?"

"Lana," Luna started. "There are people in the world who are just so evil, that they get a sick thrill out of hurting and abusing people like Leni."

"But what makes them like that?"

"I don't know... for some reason they just like seeing people in pain..."

"So guys! How have you been!" Leni interrupted suddenly, making everyone look in her direction.

"Interesting..." Lisa mumbled as her head shot back down at her notepad.

"Whoa, Leni, what's wrong?" Lynn remarked.

"I just... like... don't wanna talk about what they're talking about right now... Please, can you just tell me how you've been?" Lori caught on immediately and glared at Luna, Lynn, and the twins. Luna looked back at her in confusion, but did eventually see what Leni was trying to do and mentally slapped herself for not realizing sooner. As curious as they all were about the subject, it wasn't something that Leni was ready to talk about just yet. When the time came, Leni would reveal what happened to at least one of them.

"We missed you so much!"

"We looked for you all night after you went missing! Lincoln couldn't even fall asleep he was so worried about you!"

"I wasn't that worried!" Lincoln suddenly burst out.

"Is Linky okay?!" Leni suddenly yelled out. "Nothing happened to him right?!"

"Yeah, he's fine. As a matter of fact, he was the one who told us you were gone."

"I wanna see him!"

Everyone moved to the side to reveal Lincoln standing right in the middle of the crowd. Lincoln slowly walked over to the side of his sister's bed, dreading what could possibly happen. This was the moment of truth. Would she actually blame him for what happened? Or would she insist it wasn't his fault? As he approached the bed, he tensed up more and more, hoping that she wouldn't start going on about how it was his fault, despite all the evidence he was shown otherwise. It was destroying him from the inside. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened that night. The closer he came to the side of the bed, the more prominent Leni's smile became, the worse he felt. All the way until he reached the edge, he shivered with fear, expecting the worst to come.

But he didn't wait for the worst to come, he couldn't. As soon as he reached the edge, immediately he broke into tears and started rambling on about how it was all his fault. About how he should have been paying attention instead of playing on that stupid game of his. Saying things like, "I shouldn't have disobeyed mom..." and "I could have stopped them..." Even though Leni was taken quite by surprise at this, she didn't say anything. She just let him ramble on whether she thought it was the truth or not. It was best to let him keep going until he ran out of juice anyway. Which, surprisingly, didn't take very long at all. Lincoln's energy was at an all time low. He just couldn't bring himself to do anything more than walk for a few minutes when he needed to.

Now, completely exhausted, he plopped his head on the side of the bed, right next to Leni. For a while she didn't say anything, letting him soak the bed with his tears. He was in pain and needed to let it all out, and it seemed that this was the only way to do it. The more Lincoln let himself fall into the bed, the wetter it became with his tears. Leni started stroking his silvery, white hair, running her fingers through it, then smoothing it back over again. Lincoln didn't pay much attention to it, but he had to admit to himself that it did make him feel a little better.

After a long period of silence, Leni finally spoke up. "Lincoln?" the boy looked up at her. The smile that he was so famous for, the one that he used to calm down Lola and Lana when they were worried about him, the one he used to get Lily to stop crying, the one he used to make sure everything ended up alright, was perfectly replicated by Leni. Lincoln had never seen that smile before now, he didn't know what he looked like when he made that smile. He even thought that he was the one who came up with it, but then how did Leni learn it? The answer? She didn't, not from Lincoln anyway. Because that smile that was supposedly Lincoln's, the smile that he was famous for in the Loud house, actually came from Leni first. She was the one who used that smile first, the one who tested it, improved it, and perfected it. She didn't care about all those things that Lincoln was saying. All she wanted at the moment was to make her little brother happy. If she could do that, then nothing else mattered.

"Yeah Leni?" he meekly responded, still sniffling a little bit. As he gazed more at that smile, the more his problems melted away.

"I don't blame you for what happened." She didn't say anything else after that, because there was nothing was left that Lincoln needed to hear. That was all it took. All he really needed was to hear those words, to hear his sister's voice. There wasn't another one in the world like it. Her voice was so soft and pure that every time he heard it, it brought him peace. Not the kind of peace that the neighbors wish they could have, but the kind of peace in knowing that there's nothing wrong. That was what Lincoln needed right now. He didn't really need her to say those words specifically. He just needed to hear her and know that she was safe and sound.

Lincoln stood up from where he was, revealing a moist spot on the bed and trudged over to the head of the bed. Then, kneeling down, he let himself fall into Leni's arms, embracing her at the same time. If hearing her voice wasn't enough to make him feel better, he definitely had no doubt in his mind anymore. Feeling her arms wrap around him, her heartbeat pulsing against his chest, made it completely clear. He wasn't feeling any pressure, any guilt, or any pain from what had happened.

"I'm sorry Leni... I didn't mean to suddenly go off like that."

"It's okay Linky. I'm sorry too. Even though it like, wasn't my fault, I still scared all of you half to death when I dissapeared, I especially scared you Lincoln. But, like, you scared me too."

"I did?" Leni responded by nodding her head. "How?"

"I don't really wanna talk about it right now. The doctor said it could like, be bad for me or something if I think about what happened too much... I'll tell you later."

"We're all just glad you're okay Leni. All of us were worried about you."

"Yeah dude, I couldn't go to sleep without the sound of your sewing machine running."

"And I had to prevent the spirits from telling me what happened. They got so annoying."

"Wow, you guys really missed me that much?" everyone nodded their heads. "You're the best! I couldn't have asked for better sisters, or a better brother!"

Leni sat up as all of them surrounded her in one big group hug which only lasted a few seconds. "Ow..." and immediately everyone backed off as Leni grasped her stomach. Naturally, Leni was expecting the pain, but wasn't expecting everyone to suddenly run away from her. It was confusing and almost left her wondering if she did something wrong. But then, as if she needed the perfect excuse to think of something else, the doctor walked in followed by her parents.

"Good Afternoon Leni."

"Hi Miss!"

"Alright, let's get your heart rate, blood pressure and a few other things real quick. Are you starting to feel better?"

"Lots! I'm still really sore, but it doesn't hurt as bad anymore."

"That's good," the Lady responded as she continued examining Leni. "Has anything else happened? Have you felt dizzy or lightheaded? Maybe like you were going to faint?"

"Well..." she glanced over at Luna for a brief moment, then returned her attention to the person who asked her the question. "I did for a few seconds, but it went away after a little bit."

"What made you feel like that?"

"It was, like, something that I was thinking about. I don't really want to say."

"Ah. I understand," the doctor didn't press the issue any further. Besides, she got all the information that she needed. "Were you excited to see your family?"

"Totally. It feels like it's been forever since I've seen them!"

"That's wonderful." The doctor was interrupted by Lana and Lola shouting a bunch of questions about hospitals to Leni, so she took that opportunity and turned to Lynn Sr and Rita, "When she found out that all of you were coming, she was so excited. She was especially excited to see her brother."

"Really?"

"Oh Absolutely!" the doctor then leaned in closer to them and said with a more hushed tone, "She's been worried about him actually. It gives me reason to believe that he may be more involved in this whole situation than we think. Is there anything you can shed some light on for me?"

"Well, Lincoln was the one who came home saying Leni was kidnapped, but why do you ask?" The three of them backed away from the group a little bit. "What would that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know yet. Leni hasn't told us anything about what happened. All we have are the accounts from the police officers that responded to her 911 call. I was actually hoping that she would be more willing to tell either of you two what happened when you got here."

"Okay. We'll see what we can do."

* * *

"What's the food like? I've heard that hospital food isn't good!"

"It's okay. It's not bad, but like, It's not that tasty either."

"What kind of TV shows do they have dude?"

"Oh, the only channels they have are the sports channels," Lynn did a fist pump, "some spanish channel, and then there's one channel that does a bunch of reruns of the dreamboat."

As everyone was asking Leni questions, Lincoln was standing to the side, pondering something himself. "Why was Leni so worried about me? It's not like I was in any danger. She was the one who was kidnapped, not me."

Lincoln did feel much better about himself after talking to Leni and seeing her well, but there was still that one question that bothered him to no end. Why did Leni ask about him and not anyone else? Was there something going on that he didn't know about? Maybe she had a dream that he was kidnapped instead. After the nightmare that Lincoln had, he considered that idea to be plausible. But why would she have a nightmare about him? There was no reason for it, at least, not that he knew of. Maybe she really did blame him subconsciously. Maybe because she blamed him subconsciously, she had dreams about Lincoln deserting her. Then another thought came to his mind. She had only been gone for one night. There couldn't have been any way that she got any real sleep that night, right?

"I'm overthinking this," he said to himself. "Leni's fine, that's all that matters."

"What did you say son?"

"Oh great..." he said in a hushed tone, "Don't worry about it dad, I'm just... thinking out loud..."

Lynn Sr wasn't too convinced by this, but assumed that it would be better to leave him alone about it, at least in front of his sisters. "Okay son, just let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Will do dad."

Lincoln went back to thinking again, being careful now not to say anything out loud. The doctor, meanwhile, was giving Leni a basic checkup, gathering information about her blood pressure, heart rate, and other things for further evaluation. The loud kids were bombarding Leni with questions about the hospital, what kinds of things they did while she was gone, and did accidentally ask something about what happened once. But as they were asking these questions, Leni wasn't focused on them, she was worried about her only little brother. Of course she wasn't going to say anything about it, because not only would that be considered rude, but it would also make everyone suspicious, which was something that she didn't want. It wasn't that big of a secret, but it wasn't something that she was willing to reveal just yet. She wasn't just recovering physically, but mentally as well. The scar was never going to go away, what happened wasn't something that she could just move to the side and forget about. This was going to come up again, and she knew it, but until the wound was patched up at the very least, she couldn't say anything.

* * *

"Alright girls, it's time to say goodbye to Leni."

"Aww... I don't wanna go!"

"Me neither! I wanna stay like mom is..."

"Girls, I know you're going to miss her, but she needs her rest. Your mother is only staying here to keep an eye on Leni. Besides, now you know where she is and we can all sleep tonight knowing she's safe, right?"

"Yeah... but..."

"As much as I would also like to stay for further observation," Lisa interrupted. "I too must agree with our parental units. Leni will be significantly better off here without any of us bothering her."

"Alright everyone, lets get to the van!"

"Drive safe honey!"

"Will do sweetie!"

"Bye everyone, bye Linky!"

"Bye Leni!" they all said collectively.

"hmm, once again, interesting..." Lisa pulled her notebook back out and briefly jotted something down before cramming it back into her pocket. Lincoln also took notice of the fact that Leni had bid farewell to him specifically. Why did she do that? What made her do that? Lincoln didn't feel guilty anymore, but as usual, his curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help but wonder why Leni said his name and not anyone else's. It stuck with him on the way home and all through that night. Why did she only call Lincoln by his name and just referenced the rest of them generally?

"What'cha thinkin' about lil' dude?"

Lincoln had almost forgotten that he was sitting in plain sight of everyone else, not doing anything, "nothing..."

"Dude... nobody just sits down and doesn't do anything unless they're thinking... tell me what's going on..."

"I actually don't know if I should tell you... I'm afraid you might get mad..."

"Dude, I promise I won't get mad..."

"Pinky swear?"

"With a cherry on top dude."

"Okay..." the two interlocked pinkies and then Lincoln mentally prepared himself to tell Luna what was going on. "When we left the hospital, Leni said goodbye, but when she did..." Lincoln sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "She said bye to me specifically..."

"Dude... that's what's bothering you? seriously?"

"No, it's not that, and it's not even bothering me per-say," Lincoln quipped back. "It's because she didn't say anyone else's name. Only mine... She didn't say 'Bye Luna,' or 'Bye Lucy,' she told me bye, me specifically.' I'm just really curious why she only did it to me."

"Dude... you are way overthinking this. I didn't even catch that she did that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But it's been stuck in my head ever since we left the hospital."

"I don't know dude. Our brains are weird things. Lisa can definitely tell you more than I ever could. Maybe you should go talk to her."

"Yeah, maybe."

"I'll see ya later dude. I gotta go practice," and Luna left Lincoln alone to his thoughts.

* * *

It wasn't even nine o' clock yet, but everyone was already preparing to go to sleep. As tired as Lincoln was from the days events, he couldn't bring himself to go to sleep. Of course he did still feel guilty about what happened, but it wasn't something that bothered him as much anymore. He thought everything would be fine now, but it was as if there was something still wrong with the way everyone was acting. It wasn't just that the house was significantly quieter than usual, there was something else that Lincoln just couldn't think of. Something that was so close, right on the tip of his tongue, yet so far away, tucked away in the back of his mind. It was bothering him so much, not being able to figure out what it was, that he couldn't fall asleep. He knew that it was something so stupidly simple, yet for some reason, he just couldn't recall it. Leni and his mom were staying at the hospital so he was expecting it to be more quiet, but not this quiet, and not this early. What was it? What was going on?

He found himself getting up to go to the bathroom. He didn't need to, but he was fully committed by the time he completely realized what he was doing. The door was left wide open, as if it was waiting just for him. As he closed the door behind him, he realized how quiet it really was. He couldn't hear anyone talking through the vent, or the walls. Luna said she had to practice, which she did, but not for very long. Lynn wasn't even bouncing a ball against the wall. The audible thump that could be heard throughout the house was nowhere to be heard. Lisa didn't have any science experiments that went awry and exploded with a mighty thunder. There wasn't any noise that could be heard.

Lincoln, dismissing it as nothing serious, splashed his face a few times and got himself some water before leaving the bathroom. Turning the light off, he swung the door to a closed position, not closing it all the way though. He passed by each of his family members' rooms all of which were closed except for one. To Lincoln's surprise, the one door that was left open, was to the one room that held the missing person. The door to Lori's room was left wide open. Inside, Lincoln could make out the figure of what looked like his sister sitting with her legs crossed on her bed, looking down at nothing with her chin resting on her fists. Every fifteen seconds or so, her phone would light up from her bedside stand, but she wouldn't do anything. She was just sitting there, keeping her gaze fixed on a certain point on her bed. To Lincoln, it was strange. He had never seen his sister like this. It was understandable that she would be taking it pretty hard. After all, they had been sharing a room for as long as Lincoln could remember, but even he didn't think that Lori would take it this hard.

His curiosity got the better of him and he started pacing towards the entrance to Lori's room. Slowly getting closer to what was quite possibly impending doom. He stopped as he reached the doorway and waited to see if she did anything. Nothing. She still held that trance-like state. He had never seen his older sister like this. What was going on? He finally decided to step inside the room and make the perilous trek over to Lori's bed. The closer he got, the more nervous he became. He was afraid that Lori was going to, as she has said multiple times, turn him into a human pretzel. But at the same time it also scared him seeing her like this. His worry for his sister's well being was greater than anything that he could possibly endure.

He was now right next to her bed, on the other side of it a few feet away, was Leni's empty bed, and beyond that, the light from the hallway shining in. Looking down at the bed where Lori was looking, Lincoln saw a picture. A picture from when Lori and Leni were younger than even Lisa. Leni didn't remember that day at all, and while Lori didn't remember much about that day, combined with what their parents told her, she still remembered enough. There wasn't much to it, it was just the two of them playing in the backyard, having fun, Lori was standing up, and Leni was sitting in the sand. But unbeknownst to Lincoln, this picture, this moment that was frozen in time, held more significance to her than even the day she met Bobby. Lori was just staring at that picture, contemplating it. Lincoln wondered what it was that made that picture so special, so significant so as to not do anything but stare at it.

"Umm... Lori?" Her gaze slowly drifted towards her little brother and they made eye contact for a few seconds before turning back to the sheet of paper that was laying on the bed. In his mind, there were two possible options for him. One, he could slowly slither away back into his room while Lori wasn't too worried about him. Two, he could stay right there and continue trying to get Lori's attention. Neither of them were things that he really wanted to do. He couldn't just leave because then he would never know why Lori held that picture in such high regards, but if he stayed, he ran the risk of getting Lori angry, which was never something he wanted to happen. But before too long, he made his decision.

"Hey, Lori?" Lincoln started. His mind was racing furiously, trying to think of something to say next. He didn't want to press too much into the issue, but at the same time, he didn't want to just leave it at that and wait for her to respond somehow. He was the one who started it, so he had to continue with it. But it wasn't until Lori broke her gaze from the picture once again to look him in the eyes that Lincoln had to think quick and respond somehow. "Can I... um... sit with you for a little bit?"

Lori looked back down at the picture and moved a few inches over, then patted the bed next to her without looking back up at him. Lincoln let out a sigh of relief. Not only did she not get angry with him, she didn't even ask him to leave. He sat himself down on the bed next to her and looked more closely at the picture. What was it about that picture? Why was she so infatuated with it? What was it about this picture that made Lori love it so much? Lincoln was determined to find out. Whether it took him just a few minutes, or hours of trying to convince her to tell him, he would know before the end of the night.

Lori sighed, looking at the picture in front of her. Finally she lashed out, not violently, or even very loudly, but enough to give Lincoln a good startle. "Ugh... why did it have to be Leni!"

She swiped the paper, but then calmed down a little bit, and put it back on her bedside stand, trying to calm herself down some more, albeit unsuccessfully. Lincoln was even more curious now. Other than the obvious, what was so different about Leni than any of the rest of them? Lincoln, being the eleven year old he was, thought of all matters of different things, ranging from Leni secretly being an alien, to her being a superhero that only Lori knew about. Obviously none of these were true, but a guy could hope, couldn't he?

"You literally have no idea what that picture is all about, do you?"

Lincoln shook his head back and forth. Finally, she was going to say something. "Figures mom and dad haven't told you yet."

She sighed as she recalled the day that the picture was taken. Lori remembered what had happened, but she did still need a refresher every now and then, and as much as she hated to admit it, telling everyone, one person at a time was the best way for her. It was never easy saying it and she knew it wasn't going to be easy having to tell Lincoln what was going on, she didn't even want to tell him for fear that he would start treating Leni differently, but he had to know. All of his older siblings, including Leni herself, knew what had happened, and now it was his turn.

"Well, here goes..." Lori gulped as she began recalling the events of that day. "You've noticed the way Leni is right?"

Lincoln nodded his head again. Who wouldn't notice? "Well she's like that because when she was still really little, she got in a really bad car accident. A car accident that changed her life forever."

"What do you mean?"

"Leni got some severe head trauma from it, and it affected some areas of her brain. It permanently affected her vision, but not in the way you think. It's not that she can't see, it's... umm... you know what depth perception is?"

"Yeah, I actually learned about that the other day in school!"

"Okay, well, Leni's depth perception doesn't work like it's supposed to. Sometimes she sees things that look farther away to her when they're actually really close."

"That's why she runs into walls all the time..."

"Exactly. It also affected her motor skills to some degree. She wasn't able to walk until she was almost three, and even then it still took some time before she could do it like a normal person could."

"Wow... that explains a lot." Lincoln looked over to Lori's night stand and saw the picture resting on her lamp. "Is that picture from before the accident?"

Lori knew he would ask about the picture. Tears started forming in her eyes as she recalled what happened that day. Normally she wasn't this emotional about that, but combined with the fact that Leni could have just died made it too much to handle. Lincoln stopped pressing the matter and just let the tears fall from Lori's face. He was going to wait until she was ready before asking more questions. But he was curious as to why she was so sensitive right now.

"No..." Lori finally responded. "This was after the accident."

"That didn't take long..." Lincoln thought to himself, but then her answer hit him, "Wait, it was after?"

She turned herself and looked at him for a moment. Lincoln could start to make out mascara running down her face. He was surprised that she hadn't taken it off yet, considering she had been sitting there for a while. Was she really that bothered by this? What was it that made her act like this? "I wasn't finished telling you what happened to Leni."

Lincoln was now more intrigued. He thought that she had already explained everything, but obviously there was something more to this story than he thought, so he turned to face Lori himself and crossing his legs, put his fists under his chin, ready to listen to the rest of it.

"You see, the car crash that Leni was in, she was the only survivor."

"What?" Lincoln was completely dumbfounded now. "How was she the only survivor? How come mom and dad weren't there?"

"Mom and dad weren't there because, well..." Lori sighed once more. "It's because Leni's real parents died in that car crash."

It suddenly hit Lincoln like a ton of bricks. How did he not see it before "so... you're saying..."

"Yes Lincoln," Lori finished for him. "Leni is adopted."

* * *

 **First of all, I wanna say thanks to everyone for reading this and I ask that you would please leave a review, as I would like to know how to improve for future chapters and future stories. As I said before, I really liked how this story was turning out, especially this chapter. I bet no one saw that coming! Lincoln being adopted is too unoriginal, so I decided to go a different route with it. Anyway, I really hope you liked this chapter and I look forward to reading your reviews. I ask that you would please use constructive criticism only. Don't just bash me without telling me how I can improve (not that it's actually happened, just being cautious).**


	6. Chapter 6

**My thanks goes to everyone who reads this story. I tried to make this chapter just as exciting as the last one and hopefully, I was successfully able to do just that. Originally this chapter was going to have over 6,000 words and probably would have gone on to 7,000 if I had kept going, but as I read through it, I realized that the place I stopped at in this chapter was the best place to stop for now. That way I could make the next chapter longer and more interesting, because technically, the next chapter is going to consist of nearly half of what I originally planned for this one. Okay, I'll shut up until the end now. I hope you like this chapter of "Kidnapped."**

* * *

Chapter 6

"Whoa..."

Leni? Adopted? There was no way! Never in a million years did Lincoln ever think those two words would ever be used in the same sentence. But now, after it had been said and done, he was forced to think about it. In retrospect he assumed it was probably possible, given how Leni was so different from the rest of them. Even Lincoln, who was the only boy, and the only one with white hair, shared the same eyes with at least three of his sisters and the same freckles as two of them. He even shared a cowlick with Lisa and Lola. Leni though, she wasn't just different in her personality or the way she thought or the things she liked. Her eye color was drastically different from anyone else's. Leni had the brightest blue eyes whereas the rest of them had either Brown or Hazel. Neither of their parents, nor their grandparents had blue eyes. Not only that, but Leni's blonde hair was brighter than everyone else's blonde hair. And the more Lincoln thought about it, the more he realized that there was actually a surprising amount of other things that were different about Leni. Her face had a longer shape to it, her nose was smaller than the rest of theirs and she seemed to be the only one who didn't struggle with acne, just to name a few things. It started making more and more sense. Leni didn't look as much like the rest of them as he thought she did. She had tiny characteristics about her that made her subtly different from the rest of them, but they were just similar enough to the rest of them that no one would notice.

"When you think about it, it's not that hard to believe, is it?"

"Wow..." Yeah, no kidding. "I don't know if I want to believe it..."

"Neither did Luna, Luan, or Lynn."

"Wait, they all know too?"

"So does Leni..."

"Leni knows that she's adopted?"

"Uh-huh."

So not only did Lori and several of his other older sisters know about Leni's beginning, she knew herself too. So why didn't it ever bother her? Was there something else that he didn't know about? Something that would explain why she not only knew, but would also explain why she seemed so cool about it? Leni never seemed to be bothered by the fact that she was adopted. And that was something that Lincoln just couldn't wrap his mind around. She had to have been devastated when their parents broke the news to her, or was it even their parents?

"Why? When was she told?"

"She always knew. Our parents insisted on making sure she always knew when she was little so that they wouldn't have to go through the pain of breaking the news to her."

"But, didn't she feel left out? Didn't she ever feel like she didn't belong?"

"Heh, so many questions, but I don't really blame you," Lori began. "Leni has never felt left out. Despite the fact that she knows she's adopted, mom and dad did a really good job of making sure she felt like family. They made sure we included her in all our activities and even insisted that we don't treat her any different than anyone else. If anything, they seemed to favor her more often than the rest of us."

"Whoa..." Lincoln couldn't help but wonder what it could have been like if Leni had never been adopted. How different would the Loud House be? More importantly, how different would Leni be? Would she be the talented fashionista that they knew? Would she even like clothes at all? What if she wasn't as social? What if it was because of the fact that she grew up in a big family that her social skills were so well honed? What if Leni never had those social skills? Would she even have any friends? All of these things and more plagued Lincoln's mind, bothering him to his limits. He had to force himself to stop somehow.

Lincoln, still distressed from wondering what life would be like without Leni, looked over at the picture that Lori had just put back on her bedside stand. Now more curious about the significance it held, he reached over Lori's waist and grabbed it, looking at it, studying it. The two year old Leni was sitting on the ground, staring at the camera with a bleak curiosity. Luna was waddling on the grass behind her and Lori was looking down at her new sister with a half smile/half grimace.

"So, this picture..."

"...Is from the day mom and dad brought Leni home with them." Lori finished. "I'm gonna be honest with you Lincoln, I didn't really like Leni at first."

"Yeah, I can tell..."

Lori glared at Lincoln for a moment before continuing her story. "At first I thought that Leni was just going to stay for a little bit, then go back, but then mom and dad told me that she was my new sister... I wasn't very happy. I thought that Luan, Luna, and I were more than enough for them and, you know, only being three and a half I got upset because I thought that they didn't like us anymore." Lori wiped a stray tear from her eye as she looked down at the photo Lincoln was holding, "But as we grew up, I came to my senses and realized that they still loved us just as much as they always did, and having Leni around didn't change that."

"Wait, so you remember when Leni was adopted?"

"Barely... but yeah, I do."

"hmm..." Lincoln started thinking again. "Do... did mom and dad ever tell you why they adopted Leni?"

"They never told me anything... I'm not that worried about it though to be honest with you."

"What? Why not?" Lincoln asked a little harshly "Haven't you ever wondered why they adopted Leni? Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like if they never adopted her? Haven't you wondered if any of us would be any different? Haven't you..."

"Yes Lincoln, I have!" she suddenly burst out, giving him a decent scare. For some reason, those questions in sequence struck a chord inside her. "Other than mom and dad, I'm the only one who remembers the day that we got her! Yes, I have thought about how different it would be! I have thought about what it would be like if she was never adopted! I know that whatever you're thinking of, I promise you, I have thought of it!"

Lori exhaled and then looked back at her little brother who now had tears in his eyes. She suddenly felt terrible for blowing up at him like that. He had just found out that one of his own family members, isn't actually related to him, so of course he was gonna have thousands of questions. "Oh..." her own eyes began to water some more now. "I'm sorry Linc..." She wrapped her arms around him and gently stroked his back, doing her best to comfort him as he sobbed into her shoulder. What was she thinking? He wasn't nearly old enough to react reasonably. As macho as he may have tried to be sometimes, he was still only eleven. She was in no position to be yelling at him for anything, especially since the whole reason he came into her room in the first place was to figure out what was wrong with her.

"I didn't mean to blow up at you like that... I'm sorry..."

"It's okay..." Lincoln said, his voice still wavering a bit. "I do kind of want to know why you're not worried about it though..."

"Of course..." Lori responded. She cleared her throat as she pulled off of him and began to speak again, "I did at one point, wonder what it would be like if Leni was never adopted and... all those other things. But there was something, I don't remember what it was, that helped me realize that none of those questions matter... None of them ever really will matter..." Lori was being careful not to accidentally raise her voice again. "Because she's here, right now, and she's part of our family right now. Because of that, none of those 'what ifs' matter. We shouldn't be worried about what could have happened and we need to be worried about what is happening. Because what's happening right now is what's important. And what's happening right now, is that Leni is in the hospital because of some Low-lifes who were looking for trouble. It's not about what could have happened, it's too late to change that now. It's about what's happening right now. And right now, our sister, whether she has the same mom as us or not, needs us now, more than ever before, right?"

Lincoln audibly exhaled, and then looked up at his older sister, and started nodding. She was right. None of those things mattered anymore. It was too late to know what could have happened. All that mattered at the moment, was that it happened, and there wasn't anything they could do to change that. "Good. Now you should probably go back to your room and try to get some sleep."

"Actually Lori? Can I stay here?"

Normally, Lori wouldn't even consider the possibility of letting anyone other than Leni even stay in the same room as her. But not only was Leni still not here, but Lincoln had been through a hell of a lot more than any eleven year old should have to go through in less than twenty minutes. So, reluctantly, she let Lincoln stay. As he got himself situated under the covers, Lori got up out of her bed, painfully figuring out her legs had fallen asleep, and walked over to close the door to her room. She wasn't going to say it, but as she looked back, she couldn't help but notice how cute and innocent Lincoln looked. She went back to her bed and laid down on her back, trying to get some sleep. As she laid herself down, Lincoln moved himself closer, snuggling himself up against his sister's shoulder. She couldn't help but smile as she slowly drifted off to sleep herself.

* * *

"How long did they say she had to be there?" Lynn Sr. asked his wife over the phone.

"She said they're not going to have any definitive results for an estimated two to three days and even then, they said it could still take longer than that. Maybe even a week."

"A week!? Oh man... Okay... Have you been able to work things out with your job yet?"

"Not yet. I called them about it after you left and they asked me to come in tomorrow to see if we could work out some kind of agreement."

"Then who are we going to get to watch Leni?"

"Honey, I'm sure the doctors and nurses are more than qualified to take care of her."

"Yeah... but..."

"What?"

Lynn Sr sighed. His wife was right, but he didn't want to leave Leni alone with people she didn't know. It wasn't that he didn't trust them to do their job, if anything, he trusted them more than some of his own family members, not the ones he lived with though. He just wanted to make sure Leni didn't feel lonely. If she had someone there with her that she knew, he wouldn't be so worried about it.

"I got it! Do you think you could ask your dad to come out and keep an eye on Leni?"

"Lynn, you know he would love too, but he can't, he's on that senior cruise remember?"

"That's right... Forgot about that..."

Leni would have been excited to see her pop-pop too. It was too bad he couldn't come watch her. Lynn Sr couldn't really think of anyone else that he wanted to keep an eye on Leni, except aunt Ruth. He shuddered at the prospect of having her come over. She probably wouldn't have done it anyway, even if they offered money. She would have made the excuse that they should have been keeping a closer eye on her if they didn't want her in the hospital. Then there would be quite the argument followed by barging out of the house. The only other way they could get someone to watch her is if they took one of the kids out of school to keep an eye on her. "Wait! That's it!"

"What's it?"

"We could take Lori out of school for a day. If something happens, she would just need to text us and I'm sure Leni would love to have her older sister around."

"I was thinking about Aunt Ruth, but you're right. If you insist on someone being with Leni, then taking Lori out of school is a much better idea."

"Yeah. I thought of Aunt Ruth too..." That comment earned a chuckle from rita. "I'll make sure she knows tomorrow morning."

"Okay. I love you, I'll be sure to keep you updated."

"Love you too sweetheart. Bye-bye." And with that, their conversation ended. "Man, I'm glad that's over with."

He let out a sigh as he flopped back down on the bed. He looked over to the side where the lamp was and started reaching over to turn it off. As he fumbled around, he knocked one of the many pictures out of it's place. This one happened to be the same picture that Lori had in her room. He grabbed the picture to set it back up, but as he did, he became distracted by the memories it brought. All of them came flooding back at once. He remembered Rita and himself going to see her for the first time in the orphanage. She was such a cute baby. He didn't even know about the car wreck until after she was adopted. Even if he did know beforehand, it wouldn't have changed his decision. He remembered the day that they finally took her home to stay. Lori's reaction to finding out that she had a new sister was priceless. She was happy to have another sister, but she didn't want to admit it. Now, almost fifteen years later, not only did the two share a room, but they were the best of friends too.

He set the picture back down on the night stand and stared at it for a few minutes before turning the lamp off and trying to go to sleep. Knowing where his daughter was certainly helped him rest easier, but he still had a feeling that there was more bad news to come, especially after what the doctor had told them earlier that day. He wasn't happy with what he heard, that's for sure. "Oh, man... what am I gonna tell the little ones?"

* * *

"Are you doing alright Leni?" Rita asked as she came back in the room.

"Yes mom, I'm fine. What did dad say?"

"Well, dad and I agreed that since I have to go to work tomorrow, we're going to take Lori out of school so that she can stay with you."

"Lori's gonna be here!?"

"Yeah, your dad didn't want you staying here without someone you knew."

"But, like, I know the doctor, and some of the nurses."

"Yes Leni, but I was talking about someone that you know really well."

"Oh..." Leni had such an innocent look on her face. She was still just as cute as she always was, never having a care in the world. Even now, Leni still seemed happy and carefree. Rita didn't know what it was that made her like that, but she was thankful.

Leni got up out of her bed and walked over to the bathroom to get a glass of water. Rita shot up and ran over to her, "Leni! Let me get it for you! You still need to rest!"

As carefree as Leni was, she did still get annoyed sometimes, "Mom, I'm fine. I just needed to stretch my legs for a little bit. The doctor didn't say I had to stay in the bed all day."

"But..." Rita stayed frozen in place for a moment as she watched Leni's every move. It was so nerve wracking to see her do anything but stay in the bed and do what the doctors told her to do. But after a while, she sighed, relaxing a little bit as her daughter shuffled back to her bed, putting the glass of water on the side table. "I'm sorry sweetie. I'm just so worried about you. I've been worried ever since you went missing last night. I just don't want anything else to happen to you."

"Mom, don't worry. The cops shot those guys that kidnapped me..."

"That's not what I'm talking about... I'm worried that they might have done some permanent damage. What if there's still something we don't know about? What if..." Rita's rant was disturbed when she took a close look at Leni. Her eyes were glassy and she was sitting up, staying completely still. There was something going on that she didn't know about. "Leni?"

She looked over to the screens that were monitoring her breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. The last time she caught a glance of them, they weren't nearly at the level they were at now. Rita was hoping that it was just a glitch in the system and waited for it to return to normal, but it never did, it stayed high and kept increasing at a rather alarming rate. Leni's face was nearly completely pale now and her breathing was rapid and shallow. Rita rushed over to her and shook her shoulders to try and wake her up, but to no avail. Then, as if right on cue, the blood pressure and heart rate alarms started going off, gaining the attention of nearby nurses and doctors. "Oh my God... Leni!"

Leni had nearly forgotten about those dreadful moments. She was only trying to make her mom feel better about what was going on, but then she mentioned her kidnappers. When she did, it was like a switch was flipped in her brain and all she could think of was those eyes. The eyes of pure evil, lust, greed, and any other sin imaginable. There wasn't anything else in the world that could have distracted her from that. It didn't help at all that her mom continued with what Leni had said, but at the same time, it wouldn't have made anything any worse. It was a venom that made its way through the veins. Once there was one bite, another one wouldn't have made a difference. The end result would have ended up being the same. First, Leni started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. It was so disorienting and it made her want to throw up, but she couldn't. The next thing she noticed was that she couldn't move anything, all of her muscles were completely locked up. No matter how hard she tried, there wasn't a single muscle that she was consciously able to move. It was this moment that she realized it was happening again. If she could move, she would have sighed in annoyance. When she woke up in the hospital after having this happen to her the first time, she knew that it was bound to happen again. She just hoped it wouldn't be while someone she knew was around, but unfortunately, that kind of luck didn't exist for her, or any of her family. Once her vision started leaving her, she fell backwards onto the slightly inclined bed before completely passing out.

By now, Leni's doctor had rushed to the scene to try and figure out what was going on. If it was what she thought it was, then that was one more thing that they didn't have to wait for, and one more thing that she could cross off of the list of things to figure out. The visible symptoms that Leni had, seemed to only further confirm the doctor's suspicions. When she woke up, they would ask her how it happened, but until then, all they could do was speculate. If the doctor remembered correctly, it didn't take long for her to wake up the first time, so it should't take long this time.

Of course, Rita was hysterical. After what seemed like a pretty severe nosebleed, her daughter had passed out in front of her for what seemed like no reason at all. And despite many attempts from nurses and doctors, she didn't seem to be letting up. It wasn't until the doctor said she would have to leave that she calmed down. When the doctor told Rita what she thought about the situation, it didn't exactly seem to please the now distressed mother, but it did help with calming her down, knowing to some degree what was going on. Leni wasn't in any immediate danger, and that was all that mattered to her.

* * *

"Ugh... what happened..."

"Leni!"

"Huh?" Leni's gaze shot in the direction of her mother, making her remember what was going on. "Oh yeah, that's right."

"Oh, Leni. You scared me half to death young lady..."

"I'm sorry mom." Leni wasn't sure what else to say.

"Leni. Now that you're awake, can you tell me what happened."

"I don't know if I want to... I'm afraid it will happen again."

"You don't have to worry Leni. We gave you some medicine to make sure it doesn't happen again. So..."

"Hmm... okay..." Leni took in a deep breath, and explained what went on. From the moment she realized she was thinking about those guys, which did still bring a sense of fear when she thought about them, to the moment she passed out. As she was recalling it, the doctor scribbled furiously on her notepad. When Leni finished, the doctor briefly looked over her notes, then with a smile, turned to Rita.

"It's just as I thought Mrs Loud. Leni had a severe anxiety attack from recalling the memory of her attackers. Not only that, but I've also noticed that her blood pressure has remained abnormally high since she came in today, even when she was more relaxed. It explains why her blood pressure got high enough to cause a nosebleed." Rita let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the doctors words. "Once these results are finalized, we're going to prescribe Leni with some Beta Blockers to help with that."

"Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your help."

"It's not a problem Mrs Loud. I should also let you know that having this happen actually helped us out significantly. If what Leni just went through had never happened, it would have taken us two or three days, maybe even a week to figure out what was going on. With that being said, there are still a few other things that we need to confirm regarding Leni's reproductive health, and we also still need the results of the blood test, but I can now safely estimate that she should be able to go home tomorrow evening."

"Really? Oh, thank you so much. Did you hear that Leni?" But when Rita looked over to her daughter, she was sound asleep. All of this excitement made her more tired than listening to one of Lisa's presentations.

The doctor chuckled for a moment before speaking up again, "One more thing. Does your family or your husband's family have or have had any medical complications in the past?"

"Oh, neither of us are Leni's biological parents so I don't think it would matter."

"Ah, I see. Well thank you anyway. I hope y'all have a restful evening."

"Thank you."

It wasn't until Rita heard the woman say, "Y'all" that she caught the doctor's slight southern drawl. Having lived in central Texas for a couple years, Rita was no stranger to that accent, and it even occasionally slipped when she was scolding her kids, but it did make her curious as to where she was from. Rita remembered how hot it got down there during the summer, and how she was surprised to find that it actually got pretty chilly during the winter. It was funny how something so seemingly insignificant could trigger so many memories. Despite the crazy weather down there, she remembered liking it a lot. Everyone was so friendly. She had to admit, just like everyone else does when they live in Texas that it was the greatest state in the country. However, with all of that being said, as much as she loved Living down there, it just didn't feel like home as much as Royal Woods did. Texas was amazing, but Royal Woods was where home was for her.

As Rita sat down on the chair in the corner of the room, she got her phone out and dialed her husband. She figured he was probably trying to go to sleep, but she couldn't wait to tell him the news. It was just as she thought, but he was still excited anyway. Having Leni home before they were expecting at least gave both of them and the rest of the kids something to look forward to tomorrow. Lori would still need to come and stay with Leni, but they were now in a much better situation both emotionally and financially. Of course, Lynn Sr was worried about his daughter, but he knew that when she got out of the hospital, the bill wouldn't exactly be something to just brush off to the side. And then there was the very likely possibility of further treatment. They would have to spend even more money on medicine and other doctors visits to make sure she stayed healthy. But, with all that being said, he was ready and more than willing to do whatever it took to make sure Leni was okay. Even if she had to stay for a few more days, or a week, or a month, or even longer than that, there was not anything that made him doubt what measures he would take to ensure the safety of his family. No amount of money, possessions, or even wacky ties would ever change his mind. Lynn Loud Sr was willing to go to the grave, not just for Leni, but for his wife and the rest of his children as well.

* * *

 **I'm from Texas so of course I have to say something about the great state I live in. Anyways, thanks for reading, and as I have said before, please leave a review. I want to know how I'm doing as a writer and I want to know how to improve in the future. And again, I ask for constructive criticism only. So basically, I don't want you just bashing me without telling me how I can improve. Thanks again, and I hope to have the next chapter out soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, it took me long enough to get it out, but here it is, the next chapter of kidnapped. Once again, this chapter is going to be lacking in the excitement category, but I think I made it intriguing enough. Sorry about the absence, I was temporarily distracted in the middle of writing this chapter, but I'm back with it again. I hope you enjoy this chapter of Kidnapped!**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

"Lincoln..."

"huh? what is it? what time is it?" Lincoln woke up in his sister's room, nearly forgetting the events of the previous night. "What's going on?"

"Lincoln, go get yourself ready, we gotta go to school."

Lincoln rubbed his eyes as he sat up, and looked around the place that was normally forbidden to even enter except on special occasions. Lori was standing in front of her mirror applying makeup and getting herself ready for the day. He looked over at Leni's empty bed and stared at it for a solid minute before averting his gaze back towards Lori. She turned around right as he looked at her, giving her the opportunity to say something to him. "Okay good, you're up," she chirped. Then with a booming, yet relatively soft voice, told the boy, "Now go..."

Lincoln jumped out of the bed faster than a startled cat, and paced briskly to his room to make sure he was ready for the day. He slowly started recalling everything that had happened the previous night, from the moment he saw Lori sitting in her bed doing nothing, to the moment she told him Leni was actually adopted, to the moment he finally fell asleep. As it all came back to him, his mood became more and more depressed. He really didn't want to go to school today, but he knew that he already had more than enough homework to catch up on, which he wasn't looking forward to doing, so he forced himself to continue on.

The normal chaos ensued that morning with nothing out of the ordinary except for Leni's absence. Everyone did what they were supposed to, ate breakfast, then got into vanzilla to go to school. One by one Lynn Sr dropped off the kids at school, waving goodbye to all of them. When they got to the high school, Luan and Luna left and Lori was about to leave, but her dad stopped the young lady in her tracks, taking her completely by surprise.

"Lori!"

"Yeah dad?"

"I totally forgot to tell you. Your mother wasn't able to get today off and has to go to work, so she and I have decided that you're going to be staying with Leni today."

"I am?"

"I'm sorry I forgot to tell you, but yes. That's what your mother and I have decided."

Lori was quite confused by hearing this and even voiced complaint to her father, but secretly, she was glad that she didn't have to go to school that day. She was especially ecstatic about seeing how Leni was doing. Knowing that neither mom and dad could stay, therefore making her the one to watch Leni, came with a sense of pride. It wasn't just your typical pride that automatically comes with knowing you're the oldest, it was the fact that Rita and Lynn Sr actually trusted her and only her with this responsibility. It wasn't just that either. The only time that Lori had ever been in a hospital was when mom was pregnant so she only knew what happened there. But she was curious as to how things worked when a case similar to Leni's came along. With pregnancy, it's planned out. Everyone knows what to do and what's going to happen, but when someone is suddenly taken to the emergency room, nobody knows what's going on until just a few minutes after it happens, and Lori was more intrigued by wondering what went on than she would care to admit.

Lynn Sr drove to the hospital to drop Lori off and pick up his wife. He hated leaving any of his kids by themselves. If he had his way, he would have preferred to keep an eye on them himself, or for his wife to stay there, because then he would know for sure that everything was okay. But he trusted Lori enough to not only keep watch over Leni, but to let him know what was going on as well. It was always hard for him to leave any of his kids by themselves, but he knew that there were some cases where he didn't really have a choice. This, among many other instances, was one of them. Leni was not going to have parental supervision either way, but if Lori was there, then at least she wouldn't be by herself. Really, the only thing he was worried about with Lori staying there, was that she may end up getting too angry at Leni for some reason. But even with that worry, he fully expected her to stay calm and be totally in control of her emotions.

"Be sure to keep us updated," he said as his eldest daughter was walking away.

"Don't worry dad, I will..."

"Okay, love you..."

"Love you too dad..." and with that, he patiently awaited his wife to come to the van.

As Lori walked into the hospital, she was surprisingly nervous. It really wasn't that big of a deal that she was doing this, but there was something, some kind of aura in the air that made her completely jittery. It was so much so that she actually ended up forgetting what room Leni was in. Pivoting her foot, body following suit, Lori started walking to the reception desk. It would have been easier to ask her mom what room they were in, but the decision had already been made and Lori was already making her way to the desk. It was too late to turn back now.

"Excuse me," Lori stated. The lady at the desk looked up. "What room is Leni Loud in?"

"Oh! She's going to be in room..." the woman at the counter typed at her computer before responding again. "Room 327, on the third floor, and from here it's going to be just down the hallway to the left once you exit the elevator."

"Thank you," and with that, Lori continued on her way, entering the chrome door elevator and entering into it.

Lori didn't really know what to expect. It wasn't even an hour ago when she had been asked to do this, forgetting to even tell Bobby what was going on. Normally, she would be texting him non-stop, but for some reason, she couldn't even bring herself to reach into her pocket and take out her phone. All she could think about was Leni. Was she okay? Was she going to want to talk? Or was she going to want to stay quiet? Maybe Leni didn't even want anyone to be there. It was possible that she just wanted to be by herself for a moment after being bombarded by everyone all at once the previous night. Thinking more about it, Lori started to understand why Leni might want to be alone. If she was being completely honest with herself, Lori was kind of hoping that Leni would want some alone time, that way they wouldn't have to talk to each other or anything.

"Hey lady, are you gonna get out? We're at your floor."

"Huh... Oh! I'm sorry..."

Lori awkwardly walked out of the elevator and proceeded towards Leni's room. With each step she took, her tennis shoes echoed through the nearly empty halls. The fact that she wasn't wearing shoes with a hard bottom didn't make a difference. The squeaking well made up for it. Occasionally she would pass by a nurse carrying a clipboard, which she refused to make eye contact with, deciding instead to stare at the floor as they occasionally passed by. It felt like it was taking forever to get to the room and temporarily considered that she might have gotten lost. She nearly decided to get help from the next reception desk until she looked up at the wall and saw that she was only a few rooms down from Leni's. Those next fifteen seconds crawled by agonizingly slow as Leni's room slowly came into view until finally, she was there. The fear of not knowing what to expect made her freeze before she lifted her hand to open the door. It seemed to take even longer to force herself to grab the faded chrome handle, then more time to turn it. Finally, the door opened up to reveal the hospital room Leni was staying in. Lori's heart stopped for a split second as she took that first step into what she considered the unknown.

In a whiz, Rita jumped up from her chair and gathered her things. "Oh, wonderful. You're here. I've gotta go sweetie. Love you Lori, Love you Leni."

"Bye Mom!" Leni replied enthusiastically as they watched their mother pace briskly out of the room, almost slamming the door behind her. Leni looked at her elder sister with glee in her eyes, "Lori! You're here!"

So much for wanting some alone time, "Hey Leni. You doing okay?"

"I'm like, super excited! We get to hang out all day!"

"Yeah..." Lori wasn't too enthusiastic about this encounter. It wasn't that Leni was a pain to hang out with. Sure she was slow sometimes, and didn't really think about too many things, but if anything, despite the two of them having been around each other all of their lives, Lori preferred to be with Leni than most or even all of her other friends, except for Bobby of course. Lori was just down in general, feeling sorry for what happened to Leni. It wasn't unnatural by any means for her to feel like this, but why was it just now? Why was Lori feeling the most sorry for her sister a few days after it happened? It's not like anything much had changed, but for some reason, Lori couldn't help but feel different this time. It wasn't something she felt when they visited Leni last night, she didn't even feel like this when she woke up. There was something about seeing Leni one on one that made her feel strange.

Leni was staring intently at Lori, wondering why she was so down about this. And Leni, despite having gone through so much in the course of just a few days, couldn't help but want to make Lori feel better, assuming there was something wrong with her in the first place. "Are you okay Lori?"

There it was. There was the question that Lori was hoping wouldn't be asked. Once Leni asked that question, she wouldn't let up. Lori couldn't say yes or no, because for one, saying no would be a lie and Leni, even though she wasn't that bright, would see through it in a split second. If she said yes, then Leni would quite intently try to figure out why. Maybe instead of saying yes or no, Lori could pretend to ignore the question. Or better yet, address the problem without answering the question.

"Why are you worried about me?" Lori finally responded after thinking for a few moments. "You should be more worried about yourself."

"Lori..." Leni started. "We're sisters, we're supposed to be worried about each other."

"But your problems are way worse than mine are... I don't want you worrying about why I'm feeling down when you could be in a much worse situation."

"But I'm not. I feel fine!"

"That's not what I mean... I'm saying that there could be something wrong with you, because..."

"Because I was raped?"

Lori cringed from even hearing the word. She was completely taken aback by how blunt Leni was about it. She didn't even make an attempt to sugarcoat it, even though since it was just those two in the room, there wasn't any legitimate reason to. "Well, I wasn't gonna say that exactly..."

"Call it what you want, but that's exactly what happened."

As she starting thinking of a response, she realized that Leni wasn't wrong about what she said. Ultimately, Lori sighed in defeat, unable to think of anything. Normally she wouldn't give up so easily, but because of the way she was feeling, she decided it wasn't really worth it. "Yeah. I didn't want to say it, but... That's exactly what I was getting at."

Leni smiled and started back up again. "I'm not worried about what happened to me because... well... it already happened, and I can't do anything about it anymore. Besides, if you ask they doctors, they'll say that that's not even like, the worse thing." Lori was now intrigued. "Apparently my brain got messed up and now I have to take these pills that change something about my blood."

"Umm, is it blood pressure?"

"Yeah! That's it. They told me that it gets really high, like, super high. Like, so high that they almost couldn't measure it!"

"Wow, really?"

"I think so. It's way higher than any of my grades in school, so it has to be really bad. But it's not fun at all. I hate it so much. Whenever my blood press gets too high..."

"Blood pressure, Leni."

"Yeah, that. Whenever it gets too high, I start to like, feel dizzy and stuff and then my nose starts bleeding right before I fall asleep. The doctors said it's one of the worst cases they've ever seen. They even said they were surprised I didn't have a strike? Streak?"

"A... Stroke?"

"Yeah. I was like, really close to having one apparently."

"Wow... sounds terrible."

"It is, it's like, super tedious. I have to take one of these huge pills in the morning when I wake up, and then another one, like, right before I go to bed."

Lori was obviously feeling sorry for Leni, but at the same time, she was glad to know that her little sister was in good spirits about it all. Leni just kept talking and talking to what seemed like no end. The two of them talked about everything from school, to what's been happening lately. Lori even told Leni about how the previous day, Carol Pingrey thought it would be a good idea to mix two weird chemicals in the science lab. She didn't get hurt, but all of her makeup started melting off of her face and everyone started laughing at her. She got sent home for not following the correct procedure and because she had been embarrassed so badly in front of all her peers. Lori said it was one of the funniest things she ever saw. Leni wasn't too fond of making fun of people, but this sounded too funny for even her to not laugh.

"How's Lincoln doing? Is he okay?"

"Uh... yeah. Lincoln's fine. Why?"

"I just wanna know..."

"Okay..." This made Lori curious. Why was she so interested in Lincoln? More specifically, why did she ask if he way okay? He didn't get hurt recently, at least, not that Lori knew about. It would have been less conspicuous if she had asked about the others too, or even just one of them, but the fact that she was asking very specifically about Lincoln was something that she couldn't just ignore. Was there something that happened to Lincoln that only Leni knew about? Whatever the case, it was obvious that something happened with him that Lori didn't know about, something that only Leni and maybe Lincoln knew. And Lori, being as stubborn as she was, became determined to find out what it was even if it meant poking and prodding further than she wanted to.

* * *

The more time passed on, the more curious Lori became, and the stronger her resolve became to find out why Leni was so interested in Lincoln all of a sudden. Lunchtime had approached and Lori wasn't able to get any information from Leni about why she was so interested in Lincoln all of a sudden. It was like she was intentionally trying to avoid it. Maybe she wanted to talk to Lincoln about it. If this piece of information Lori was trying to purge out of Leni was bout him, then it actually made sense that she would want to talk to him about it. Maybe Lori shouldn't keep trying to prod Leni about it. Maybe Leni would even decide to tell her once she told Lincoln. No. She had to find out what it was.

"I'm gonna go get some lunch, literally, real quick. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

Lori got up from her chair and started speaking again, "Text me if you need anything, especially if you need me to come back."

"Okay Lori." Leni chuckled.

"Literally, Anything!"

"Okay," Leni couldn't help but giggle now. "Just go, I'll be fine!"

"Okay..."

With great hesitation, Lori finally left the room, taking long yet slow strides down the hallway. The sound of her footsteps were once again echoing throughout the hospital, seeming to get quieter with every step she took. Multiple times she saw nurses wheeling gurneys down the hallway, some of them being in quite a hurry. Most of them were just being transferred to different rooms, but the ones that looked really bad were quite the sight to behold. One of them was completely bandaged up from head to toe. "At least Leni's not in that state..." she thought. "I'd hate to see Leni like that..." Just the thought of Leni, completely covered up, being swiftly wheeled down the hallway made her stomach churn. All of a sudden, she wasn't that hungry anymore. Her appetite had completely vanished without a trace.

Lori stopped in the middle of the hallway and clutched her other arm that was still hanging to the side. Imagining Leni being rushed down the hallway made her freeze up. There wasn't even any reason to worry about Leni, she seemed to be fine. But her imagination got the better of her. Things that seemed impossible kept popping up in her mind without a way to get rid of it. It was terrifying to think about her little sister being in a state like that, nightmarish almost. It could have been so much worse. What if Leni didn't get away in time? What if Leni got even more hurt or even worse, killed.

Lori shook her head and started walking again, desperately trying to keep the mere thought of that out of her mind. Leni was way too young for something like that to happen to her. She had to think of something else, something that would take her mind off of it. Lunch. She was going to go get some Lunch and then come right back to Leni. If something was going to happen to her little sister, then she had to be there. She also had to be there just in case the doctors had some news to tell.

* * *

"Man, this test is hard..." Lola thought to herself. She wasn't exactly the best at math tests. Most of the time she would be able to make do, but this test, being the big quarterly test was especially harder just for this purpose. She scanned the room for a brief second, trying to see if there was someone she could get some answers off of, but as she did, she caught a glimpse of the teacher turning around in her chair. The two of them locked eyes for a moment and glared coldly at each other. Lola's teacher was one of the nicest ladies in the world, but when she needed to be, she could deliver a stare more menacing than Medusa. Not once breaking eye contact, she pointed two fingers at Lola and then sharply curved them straight down. Lola wasn't normally one to give in so easily, but it wasn't like there was much of a choice. If she was caught trying to cheat, she wouldn't be allowed to take the test, and with her grades already suffering in math, the last thing she needed was to have a major test grade with a big fat zero on it. So, reluctantly, she bowed her head back down, not once breaking the menacing look on her face.

Once she did look back down at her test however, she realized how she got herself into that situation in the first place. This was not going to be an easy task. The hardcore look she had broke down as she struggled to understand why Jane and John were moving at two different speeds on the same road. It was a shame that Lisa wasn't here to help her out, but, thinking about that did help her remember how to solve the problem. Furiously, she started scribbling down numbers and added, subtracted, and divided a few numbers together to come up with some kind of an answer. Finally finished with the test, she picked it up and proudly strolled down the aisle of desks to the teacher's, turning in her paper. She actually finished it. If there was one person who would have been proud of her, it would have been Leni.

Why did Leni have to come to her mind right now? Every time she thought about her sister getting beaten up by strangers who just wanted to hurt her, it made her start to tear up. Lola does usually only look out for herself, but she did care about her other siblings, even if she didn't want to admit it. And now she was struggling to hold back tears in the middle of class. She stared down at her desk, desperately trying to make sure that not even a single drop left her eyes. The more she held back, the harder it was for her to not cry. Finally, it got to be too much for her.

The teacher swiveled her chair and saw Lola's hand raised. Curious, she asked Lola what she needed. "May I use the restroom?"

Odd. Lola never asked to use the restroom during a test, even if she was already finished, but the teacher waved it off like it was nothing and permitted the six year old to take her short leave. With haste, Lola left the room and started walking to the bathroom. As she made her way down the hall, tears began forming in her eyes. She knew when she had reached the point of no return, and she wasn't about to let anyone see the weak, emotional little girl that was hiding deep inside her. What a pain it was that she had to resort to this, but it was necessary to let it all flow out. To let it hurt where no one could see her. No one could see the fragile Lola, or they would tear her apart.

She finally got to the restroom and locked herself in a stall. Slowly but surely, the tears started to fall to the ground. The more she allowed herself to let go, the more she opened up, and the more tears streamed down her face. No one could see the broken down Lola now. She could cry as much as she wanted now and all of the people that hated her, feared her, maybe even respected her would be none the wiser. They would never know why she went to the restroom. Those people would never find out that she was so close to shedding tears in front of them. Not a soul in the world would ever be told of Lola's moment of weakness. Not her friends, not her sisters, not any of her family would ever know that she became so distressed as to excuse herself from the classroom, to go and cry.

What was supposed to be just a few seconds, turned into a few minutes, which turned into much longer than she had originally planned. Nearly fifteen minutes had passed and Lola was still sitting on the floor of the girls' restroom, silently weeping. It was killing her knowing that she let herself become this weak, this fragile. So much so that she actually had to be dismissed so that she could go weep without anyone seeing it. And it wasn't just that either, she was taking such a long time doing it. Anyone who was paying attention would wonder where she was by now.

The fact that she was broken like this though, was a testament. It wasn't that she cracked under pressure. There wasn't any pressure there except any that she put on herself. There was an overwhelming weight on her that any other six-year-old would never be able to muster, yet she carried it with ease. And the one time that she let her defenses down, she beat herself up over it. But the fact that she cracked only showcased how much she really cared for her siblings and parents. If nothing ended up changing about Lola, then never in a million years would she ever admit this, not even to herself. But this breakdown that she was having, only further proved her love for not just Leni, but Lana, and Lincoln, and Lori, and Lucy, and all of the others.

It ended up taking a grand total of about twenty-three minutes, but after she had finished, she quickly reapplied all of her makeup, and rushed back to the classroom. As she opened the door, the teacher looked her in the eye, and nearly scolded her for taking so long, but noticed something off about Lola. Upon further inspection, she saw the most minuscule amount of mascara on her cheek. There was no way that something like that happened, her eyes had to be fooling her, but rubbing her eyes and looking again, she saw it, right as the young girl sat down at her desk. It wasn't obvious by any means, but it was there. Lola's teacher was forced to be hard on her sometimes, but she had been told what happened over the weekend by the principal. She figured it would be best not to say anything. And so, not a word was spoken, and they both kept it that way.

* * *

"I'm back, Leni! Has anyone come in yet?" Lori asked with high hopes.

"Well you did, just now!"

Chuckling under her breath, Lori repeated and added to her question, "Has anyone, other than me come in since I went to go get lunch?"

"Oh... No, not yet... I was getting kind of bored without you though."

Lori blushed slightly. If the circumstances were normal, Lori would have brushed that comment off like nobody's business. But there was something about her little sister wanting her attention that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Why did she feel like this? Lori never blushed at any of her siblings complimenting her before, despite the frequency of it, especially from Leni. The real kicker though, was that Leni didn't even compliment her, she was merely stating her lack of things to do without her older sister. And yet, Lori was flattered merely by the fact that Leni just wanted to keep her around. The more she thought about it, she realized that Leni was probably just happy to have company and that it didn't matter who that company was. But even so, Lori's heart fluttered anyway, giving way to many happy thoughts.

Leni was about to ask Lori another question, but just at that moment, the doctor came into the room, knocking lightly before entering.

"Good morning Leni! Feeling better today?"

"Lots!"

"That's wonderful! Who is this?"

"That's my big sister Lori!"

Lori once again blushed, being introduced to the doctor who then briefly shook Lori's hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Is either of your parents here?"

"No they had to work today," Lori responded. "That's why I'm here."

"Alright then. Ms Lori Loud. Would you please come with me?"

Lori hesitated for a moment. Why would she need to speak to her in a separate room? All of a sudden, her heart started pounding, racing more and more as she followed the doctor out of the room. As their footsteps echoed down the hall, Lori could swear that she was able to hear her own heartbeat. Staring at the back of the doctors head was the only thing keeping her from freezing right in her tracks. The sheer amount of tension that she was feeling right now was incomparable to anything she had ever felt before. There was only one thing on the young woman's mind. What was wrong with Leni?

"Please take a seat Ms Loud."

Lori did as instructed and sat down in a waiting area close by to where Leni's room was. Nervously tapping her foot against the floor, Lori's breath was rapid and shallow. Her teeth were chattering behind her closed lips and her hands were trembling on her lap. The doctor sat down across from Lori and looked her right in the eye with a completely straight look on her face, which was only further worrying Lori. The doctor was sitting completely still as if there wasn't anything wrong, but anyone could tell that there was just a hint of nervousness in her eyes. Even she didn't want to have to break the news, but it was her responsibility to.

"At the moment, Leni is in a stable position, speaking health-wise. She was extremely lucky to not get pregnant, and even more lucky to not have any Sexually Transmitted Diseases."

All of the tension and stress that Lori was feeling was suddenly gone, and she relaxed with a sigh. Lori herself was wondering how Leni did get that Lucky. "However, Leni's mind, as you probably already know, was severely affected and her body was affected as well by this traumatic incident."

"What do you mean?" Lori asked, now shaking again, though not as violently as before.

"Well, to start off, as you may already know, the damage caused to her, mentally has caused her blood pressure to be constantly extremely high and it's very possible she may have to take medicine for it for the rest of her life."

That was bad, but it was something that could be dealt with. Odds are, everyone would have to give up something monetarily in order to make this work out in the long run, but it wasn't something so bad that they wouldn't be able to handle it.

"Also, the men who molested Leni, caused so much damage to her reproductive system, that..."

"That what?"

"Well... to put it quite simply," The doctor started, again hesitating for just a moment before picking back up. "We don't know exactly how they were able to do this, but Leni is unable to have kids now."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading this chapter. Please leave a review down below. There were some moments of dialogue, specifically Leni's dialogue where I intentionally used the wrong word(s). If you were planning on reviewing it and telling me that, trust me, I am well aware of what I did. I was trying to keep in character as best as I could and I felt like that's how I would do it. Also, the end of this chapter was something that I had planned from the beginning, but when I got there, I realized it wasn't as easy to make it work out as I thought it was going to be. I tried re-working the end several times to where it wouldn't be too bad, and I think I did improve from what it originally was, but it's still lacking in my opinion. I know it's kind of unrealistic for this to happen, but I think it conveyed how terrible the thing that happened to Leni was. Anyway, I give you the normal spiel of thanks for reading, please review it, etc. etc. etc. And as always, I'd like to emphasize that I don't want you to review it if you have something negative to say without giving me a way to improve.**

 **I would also like to say this. Feel free to review it, even if you don't have any critique for me. I think I unintentionally implied that I didn't want anyone to review it UNLESS they had critique for me. This is not the case. I want people to review my story, please tell me what you think, but my point was that I don't want you to just bash it or say bad things about it without telling me how I can improve. Please review it if you so wish. But if you do critique me, I ask that you give me something to improve on, don't just tell me how terrible of a writer I am. Thanks again and I hope to get the next chapter out fairly quick (quicker than I got this one out anyway, LOL).**


	8. Chapter 8

**As usual, I thank you for all the support this story is getting. I told you it wouldn't take as long as the previous chapter took to get out. Over 9000 views on it now! That's awesome! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped!"**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

The room was silent as she finished her daily studies. It didn't take long to do this, as usual, but to Lisa, it seemed to take much longer than normal this time. Maybe the lighting in the room wasn't optimal for studying, it did seem dimmer than usual. No, that was just another excuse that was fabricated by the imperfections of the human mindset. The lighting had nothing to do with the quality of study that had happened in that allotted amount of time. Lisa knew exactly what it was that made her study time take longer than average. It was only natural to be slightly distracted after something like that happened, but nevertheless, Lisa was determined to make sure nothing distracted her next time.

She closed the textbook she was reading, making a dull thudding sound as the pages clapped together. Taking the book underneath her right arm, she jumped down from the chair she was in and started making her way to where she had found the book. Thousands of aisles of books with millions of books present made the Library one of Lisa's favorite places. With so much knowledge at her disposal, she could stay in her all day if she wanted to. Billions of words to read in such a confined space excited the four year old to almost no extent. There was so much to read, and to think that she had just barely scratched the surface of the vast amount of learning opportunities in this one building.

Lisa returned to the aisle where she found the book, walking down the quiet hall of paper. Her knowledge regarding science and mathematics were overwhelming, but she did realize that her knowledge of literary subjects was not up to the expectations of someone with an IQ of over two-hundred fifty. Even her history, which she was much more affluent in than Literacy, was not even close to her knowledge regarding maths and sciences, hence the reason for her wanting to take up reading fictional stories. However, as she was returning the book to its place, something else caught her eye. Something that she didn't expect to see in this area of the Library. This was a section for fictional reading, what was a book on the history of criminal activity doing here? Maybe someone misplaced it after they had finished reading. Despite Lisa having sworn to never be distracted by anything while studying again, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the appearance of this book. Besides, she was technically done studying now. Anything that she does from this point forward is not official study material.

Now with a new conviction, Lisa briskly walked down the aisle to return the book she had under her arm to its proper position on the shelf. Then coming back to the book that had piqued her interest, picked it up and scanned its contents. Why this book was so interesting to her all of a sudden was even surprising to her, but there was something that she had questions about. Besides, how could reading even more possibly have a negative effect on her.

She was briefly scanning the contents of the book before she came back to the place where she was previously studying. Taking her seat in the nearly empty library, she opened the book to a chapter regarding something that someone in her immediate family had recently gone through. It was a bit of a shock, finding out what kind of evils different kidnappers subjected their abductees to. The sheer amount of evil almost made Lisa close the book right then and there, but she was too intrigued in it to bring herself to stop reading. What made matters worse was that they also told what happened to the people that survived their kidnappers. Obviously, the worst case scenario was death, but there were some cases that seemed to be worse than death. People telling stories about how they can't go to sleep at night without remembering what happened that fateful day. But the mental consequences were not all. Most everyone that was able to escape had various scars all over their body. The victims of sexual assault and rape sometimes died of terrible diseases, sometimes even years after the fact. But the most intriguing to Lisa, was the story of one woman whose reproductive system suffered so much damage that she was unable to have children anymore. Why that was more intriguing to Lisa than any of the other things in that book, she had no idea why.

Lisa finally summoned up the willpower to close the book before she went any further. Hastily, she grabbed the small backpack that was with her and, leaving the book on the table, rushed out of the library, getting strange looks from the Librarian that was on duty that day. The young woman stepped into the nearly blinding sunlight and began making her way to the place where she was picked up every day. Even Lisa, whose emotional barrier was that of a brick wall, had weaknesses sometimes. It wasn't very often that something happened to make her have to leave in such a hurry, but she could feel herself welling up, thinking about Leni. All of the things that she read in that book, all of them were things that possibly happened to her older sister, and it started to take its toll.

She looked straight down at the sidewalk in the hopes that no one would see her bothered. The last thing she wanted was people asking her if she was feeling okay. Obviously not, but she wasn't ready to have to answer that question. Even if she didn't have to, it would prove a point. Despite covering up her emotions to the best of her ability, she did still care about her family. Science may have been important to her in life, but deep down, her family always came first. Maybe she would calm down before reaching her destination. It didn't seem likely, but it was worth a shot.

"I really hope Leni is okay..."

Approaching the vast parking lot, she recognized Vanzilla standing out among the rest of the various different cars. Why was someone already here to pick her up? It wasn't even three-thirty yet. As she got closer, she noticed her elder brother sitting in the front seat of the car. Now this was not something that Lisa was expecting. Especially this early.

"Lisa, over here!"

"ugh... I'm not an ignoramous. I can clearly see the van among the vast pool of automobiles. It stands out!"

"Whatever, I need your help with something!"

* * *

"She's not going to be able to have kids?"

"Unfortunately, that's right. I hated having to tell you, but that's the truth of the matter."

Lori wasn't sure what to think about this news. On one hand, she was happy that there wasn't anything life-threatening about her current condition, but at the same time, it was going to be utterly heartbreaking for her little sister. Having a child was one of the greatest things that could happen to anyone, even in extenuating circumstances; loving them, holding them, nurturing them, enjoying their presence. Knowing the majority of your life that you're never going to be able to have that, knowing that you will never have a child that is of your own blood, is completely crushing. To make matters even worse, Leni was the most adamant of the Loud children about having kids. When she's in one of her moods, she can't stop talking about what her kids names will be.

"Okay. Thank you..."

"Well, lets not leave off on terrible news like that. I do have some very good news regarding Leni returning home."

Lori didn't care at the moment what the doctor had to say about that. Leni wasn't going to be able to have her own children. And it all happened because those stupid men decided to take Leni away from them. All it took was a single night for this to happen. Could it have been longer? Yes. Could it have been much worse? Absolutely! But now Leni's own words were suddenly backfiring. At the moment, the present seemed much worse than the past. And all that was just the pre-show. How would Leni react to this news? What would she do? How would everything change for her? Would not being able to have kids affect her psyche? Will she still be the same innocent, fun-loving, yet clumsy girl? Or will her demeanor change completely to one that's always sour and cynical.

"Ms Loud?"

"I'm sorry, I drifted off. I don't think I caught any of that."

"It's fine," she said that, but Lori could tell that the look on her face said otherwise. "I was telling you about Leni being able to come home."

"Of course, I'm sorry. I remember hearing you say you had some good news for me right?"

"So you really didn't get any of it..." the look of feigned happiness was all too apparent now. The woman actually seemed to be quite annoyed. She wasn't going to let it show though, this family had been through a whole lot with this kid. And then to dump on top of it the fact that the girl was adopted after her birth parents died in a car accident. The doctor did not have a hard time forgiving Lori for drifting off.

"I guess not, again, I'm really sorry."

"Well, to start off, Leni is going to be able to come home today. As soon as your parents get off of work, all they have to do is sign the release papers and she's good to go."

"So, basically, the only reason she can't leave right now is because our parents aren't here?"

"They also need to choose which pharmacy they want to pick up Leni's blood pressure medicine at before they can leave, but other than that, yes."

"Oh, well that's good to know. Thanks." Lori was about to get up and return to the room, but was distracted by the doctor's sudden speaking up. What else did she have to say about Leni?

"Be careful around Leni. Her blood pressure medicine is strong but you still need to be careful not to get her too excited, otherwise she'll have to come right back here."

If the doctor knew what Lori was like then that question would have been directed specifically at her. If Lori was being honest with herself, she would have expected it by now. She was actually surprised that she didn't gain a reputation of having such a hot temper. "Okay, I will."

"Okay, you may return to the room now if you wish."

Lori watched as the doctor stood up and walked away, then, returning to her thoughts, stood up and began making her way back to Leni's room. There was so much to tell. What was she going to start with? Would it be best to just get the worst of the news off of her back and then say everything else? Or maybe it would be best to tell her as much as she could before saying that she couldn't have kids? Either way, it was going to be a nightmarish situation for both of them.

"OH! Miss!"

Lori whizzed around and looked in the direction of the call, seeing the doctor speed-walking back to where Lori was. "If it's at all possible, try not to tell her the news until she gets home. If you tell her right now, it's possible her blood pressure could spike again and then she'll have to stay for another night."

"Okay..." Well, at least she had plenty of time to think about how to break the news now.

* * *

The whole classroom stared in silence as the poet finished reading her latest work. This wasn't the usual reaction that she got from reading her poems to the class. This one didn't seem any darker than any other poems she usually wrote, but nevertheless, Lucy was still surprised, although she didn't dare show it. The more she scanned the classroom, the more beady eyes she was able to count staring at her until finally, she sighed and went to sit down at her desk.

"Wow Lucy, that was very... umm..." Her teacher was even having a hard time believing what she just heard. "Interesting. Wow... uhh... Ev... Everyone give Lucy a round of applause for yet another genius poem."

Slowly, the teacher started clapping, then, like hand sanitizer running down the edge of the bottle, the rest of the class joined in. The class joining in slow like that was something that Lucy was used to, sometimes even she didn't get any applause from anyone but the teacher. But what really bothered her this time, was the fact that not only was the teacher quite distracted, but she even stuttered when trying to collect her thoughts. This never happened, but only Lucy noticed it. She was the only one who would notice it. Not another soul in the room even bothered with it, despite how obviously different the young goth thought it was.

"Lucy?" her head perked up as the sound of her name being said hit her eardrum. "If you don't mind, I'd like to speak with you for just a moment about your poem after class."

About her poem? What was so different about her poem this time? Was there really something so different about it that it elicited such a response from her teacher? Lucy normally would go to her after class and ask about things that she could improve on, so it wasn't abnormal for Lucy to talk to the teacher after class, but for the teacher to ask to talk to her before starting the lesson took Lucy by surprise. It was possible that the teacher, knowing what she does, decided today to take the initiative. Maybe it wasn't even the content of the poem, but the various grammatical issues that were present. That had to be it. After all, the whole situation with Leni was quite distracting from everything else that was going on; there had to have been some kind of effect of that, and this just happened to be it. As she was thinking, she looked over her poem and started noticing all of the different spelling errors that she wouldn't usually make. Not only that, but there were certain lines where instead of making a new line, she continued with the previous one. Such seemingly small things like that could have a bigger impact on reading a poem than you would think, and Lucy was well aware of this.

Naturally, she put it off as nothing and slipped the paper into her backpack, directing her attention back to the final lesson of the day. Which, coincidentally, was focused on creative writing of any sort. The moment the teacher knew that Lucy wrote poems, she decided that if Lucy had a poem to read, the teacher would always let Lucy present it before getting into English/Language-Arts for the day, as a way to not only get everyone in the right mindset, but also to make sure that Lucy didn't think that her poems didn't mean anything to the teacher, as creative as she was. It would have been a shame if Lucy was never able to get off the ground with her poem writing because her third grade teacher wouldn't let her present her poems. As ironic as it sounds, she really did want Lucy to shine.

The lesson was presented and came to a close rather quickly that day and before everyone knew it, school was over. Lucy stayed behind as was asked of her. What was it that the teacher had to tell her? Was her poem today really lacking that bad grammatically? Maybe it wasn't even that. Maybe it was just the teacher taking initiative of the fact that Lucy sought improvement at the end of every day. That had to be it. As the teacher came to Lucy's desk, she convinced herself that it was just that.

"I'm sure you noticed that your poem today was not up to par with what is usually expected of you."

Thank goodness, "I noticed. Home's been distracting lately."

"That's not everything though," her teacher continued. "Sometimes, writers with great ability will write something that seems simple at the time, but upon later inspection, they find that the meaning has much more to it than they originally intended."

Okay, what was she trying to get at here? "Was my poem like that today?"

"It was, and for some reason you didn't notice it. I didn't either at first, but I started thinking more about it and realized that maybe you put more thought into this than you realized."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you were writing this, were you thinking about your family?"

Lucy recalled the moment she began writing her poem. At the time, they had just gotten home from visiting Leni in the hospital, so to say no would be an outright lie, and responded by simply saying, "I was."

"I could tell. Even though your poem today wasn't about your family, I noticed that you used a lot of words that someone would use if they were talking about their family, yet, without mentioning them at all."

Lucy nodded her head in understanding. "But that's not what bothered me."

Here it came. The moment of truth. Lucy was finally going to get an earful about how terrible her grammar and spelling was this time, but that didn't happen. Instead, she put her hand on Lucy's shoulder and began speaking in a lower, more worried tone. "What bothered me the most, was that while you were speaking, you didn't once put any amount of effort into emphasizing certain words. You are so good at making sure you do that; so that the poem doesn't come off in a way that you may not have wanted it to. But there wasn't even the slightest hint of that in your voice, and then taking into account that you unintentionally were writing about your family, it gave me reason to worry that something might have happened."

The young girl stared at her teacher with an expressionless look on her face, but she was deep in thought at the moment. The teacher sighed. She wanted to know what was going on, but had no right trying to pry into her student's personal life. "I'm not going to make you tell me what happened, but whatever it is, I hope it gets resolved soon."

"Thank you."

"I'll see you tomorrow Lucy. Enjoy the rest of your day."

Lucy was finally able to walk out of the room that she had sat in all day long, doing nothing but take notes, write, get up to present a less than acceptable poem, then sit back down and take some more notes. As she walked to the place where all of the car-riders were picked up, she thought about what the teacher had said, and looking back on it, realized that she was right. There was no voice inflection, no pauses, nothing to indicate that she was really trying to get the right message across. Maybe Leni's absence was taking more of a toll on her than she thought. After all, these were rookie mistakes. Accidents that shouldn't have ever happened: that wouldn't have ever happened under normal circumstances. But they did, and there was no changing that now.

"I hope this gets resolved soon too..."

"Lucy!" Lincoln yelled from the front seat of vanzilla. "Hop in, Leni's coming home today! And I've got a great Idea!"

Maybe this was going to be resolved quicker than she thought.

* * *

Lori casually strolled back into the hospital room, trying to force a smile as Leni came into view. What was she going to tell her? The doctor said not to break the news to her until she got home, but what if she suspected something? What if Leni tried to pry it out of her? How could she possibly hide the truth from her sister? What happened to her was already bad enough, but now she had to do her best to keep silent. What was she going to do?

"Hi Lori! What did the doctor say?"

"Umm..." Lori tried to think of a lie to tell, but was unable to think of anything good on the spot. So she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "Nothing! She said you're fine! Nothing's wrong!"

"Dang it, dang it, dang it! Why did I do that? What's wrong with me?" she thought as Leni's eyebrows perked in confusion. "No," Lori started. "I'm sorry Leni. That's not what the doctor said."

Leni was now even more confused. "Umm, okay? What did the doctor say then?"

"She said that I can't tell you until we get home."

"What? Why not?"

"Because of your blood pressure Leni. Remember how high it is? Remember what happens when it gets too high?"

"Yeah, I remember, but, how does she know what my blood press is gonna do?"

Lori slapped her own face, "First of all, Leni, It's blood pressure, and second of all, she knows what your blood pressure is going to do because, well, she's a doctor."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense."

Despite the things that Leni had gone through, Lori still couldn't help but get slightly annoyed at her, even now. She knew it wasn't right of her to act like that, but she couldn't help it. Lori was just too hot tempered; something she had to work on. Now that Leni's blood pressure was so high, she had to be careful not to get too angry around her. What if she did get too angry and made Leni's blood pressure get too high. What if Leni got a stroke because of her? The mere thought of something like that happening made Lori shudder with anxiety. Even if Leni did live through it without any major complications, she would never be able to live with herself, knowing she was the cause of something like that happening to her sister. Something had to change if she didn't want it to happen. Lori had to control herself better, if not permanently, then at least when Leni was around.

Lori suddenly felt her phone buzz in her pocket. It must have been Bobby since school was out now. With the intention of just glancing at it, then putting it back in her pocket, she looked to see who texted her. To her surprise, it was Lincoln. What could he possibly want right now?

 _"Hey, Ive got an idea to throw leni a coming home party!"_

"Not bad twerp," Lori thought to herself. There were a lot of times where Lincoln was pretty selfish, but there were times, even his selfish ones, where she had to give him at least a little bit of credit. Sure, the whole "sweet spot" fiasco was his doing, but she was impressed that someone of his age, with the obvious exception of Lisa, was able to take the time and effort to figure out where the best spot in the car was, even if he did just do it out of his own selfish desires. She later found out that he was able to do the same with the living room, finding the best spot there as well. That wasn't all. He was even thought of the idea of separating the siblings and making new pairs based on personality tests. In the end, it was Lisa who had the most success doing this, but if it weren't for Lincoln coming up with the idea in the first place, it would have never happened.

 _"Thats a great idea, but how can i help?"_

 _"I'm glad you asked. I just need you to distract leni long enough when she gets out of the hospital so that the rest of us can get everything ready"_

 _"Thats literally not gonna be hard. She can't leave until mom or dad pick her up anyway."_

 _"dangit... mom should have waited then..."_

 _"is she on her way over here?"_

 _"she's probably already there..."_

Sure enough, as soon as Lori finished reading the message, Rita barged into the room, ecstatic about Leni's welcome home party. A haunted look passed over Lori's face, struggling to think of something to slow her down. "Hi Leni!"

"Hi mom! What are you doing here?"

"We're going home Leni! There's something waiting for you there!"

"Ooo, really!?"

Another buzz from her pocket grabbed Lori's attention. It was Lincoln again.

 _"ill tell you when everythings ready!"_

 _"how much time do you need? I cant stall forever..."_

 _"It should only be an hour or 2, ill let you know when everythings ready!"_

 _"ok"_

"I think you're going to love what we have planned for you Leni!"

Lori shoved her phone into her pocket and butted into the conversation, desperate to try to get her mother to slow down. "Mom! We can't take Leni home yet, we still have to check her out! You gotta go... go... sign the discharge papers."

"Ah, that's right! I'll be back in just a minute!"

Rita rushed out of the room, once again Lori and Leni by themselves. That bought Lori a minute to think. Everything had become rushed all of a sudden with their mother's sudden appearance, excitedly talking to Leni about what was in store for her. What was next though? As soon as their mom came back, she was going to want to hurry up and get out of the hospital. Lori looked over at Leni's even more confused face now. Maybe there was something that Leni needed to do before she left. Scanning the rest of the bed, Lori immediately recognized what that thing was.

"Okay, I'm back, I have the discharge papers and we are all set to go!"

"Wait Mom! Don't you think Leni, literally needs to change into some proper clothing first? I mean, she's still wearing that ugly hospital gown!"

"Yeah, mom. Lori's right. I don't want to go out in public wearing this!"

"You know what! You're right, which is exactly why I brought your favorite dress Leni!"

"Oh my gosh! Thanks mom! I'll go put it on!"

Everything was moving too fast still. Lori still had to stall for a couple more hours. "Umm... mom!"

"Yes sweetie?"

"umm..." Lori furiously tried to think of something that she could blurt out real quick. "Don't you think it would be a good idea, if we took Leni to the mall? That way, she could get a brand new dress!" she then leaned in and whispered, "for the surprise!"

"Oh! Good idea Lori! Let's take Leni to the mall!"

"Oh, goody! I'll hurry up and get changed!"

"That'll take at least five minutes," Lori thought to herself. Now she could really think about how to burn some time.

* * *

"Alright guys, move the banister to the left just a little bit more!"

"Lincoln, we already have moved it over!"

"Just move it a little more!"

"Ugh!" Lynn and Luna, each standing on a stepladder, grabbed the massive banner that was spanning three fourths of the living room, and moved it a couple inches to the left. Then, looking back at Lincoln, gave him a cold glare. The boy stared at the banner with his fingers in the shape of a rectangle, making sure that it was in the picture perfect position. "Do we need to move it some more, your majesty?"

"No, that's perfect!" He gave a huge smile, and hugged both of them as they went to go help their father with dinner. Just then, the front door of the house flung open and Luan stormed in, carrying a box of party supplies!

"Sorry, it took so long. The line blew up when I got there! haha! Get it?"

"Yeah, I get it. Do you have everything?"

"Oh yeah! This party's gonna be poppin'! haha!"

Looking through the box, Lincoln noticed something missing! "Luan, where are the streamers!"

"I stream to remember getting them. Look closer!"

Lincoln cringed at that pun, but he did as asked and leaned into the box more, and as he did, Luan pressed a button and all of the streamers came flying out. Taking Lincoln by surprise, he jumped up and turned around just in time to receive a pie to the face! With a glare on his face, he shoved the box back into his sister's arms and told her to get all of that set up. "Aw man, you're such a party pooper!"

She placed the box on the couch and began setting up streamers and balloons. With the banner set up, and Luan putting the decorations in place, all Lincoln had to do was make sure nothing went wrong, which, as usual, was harder than it looked.

"Dark Chocolate!"

"Milk Chocolate!"

"Dark Chocolate!"

"Milk Chocolate!"

Lincoln would have been able to hear the twins going back and forth from the other side of the street. So, hurriedly, he wiped the pie off of his face and rushed over to the kitchen where the source of the problem could be found. Naturally, they were fighting over which flavor of chocolate to make the cake. He separated them, and then asked what was going on.

"I think Leni likes dark chocolate better!"

"I think Leni likes milk chocolate better!"

"Okay? Why don't you just make a cake with both of them? Dark chocolate on one side, and milk chocolate on the other?"

"Oh yeah!" they said in unison. "Thanks Linky!"

He wiped his brow and took out his phone to find a new text from Lori.

 _"I cant stall any longer, mom insists we come home now! We'll be there in literally 5 minutes..."_

"Dang it," Lincoln thought to himself. Rarely were there cases where Lincoln had to kick it into overdrive, but now was one of those moments. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the house. "Alright everyone, listen up! Mom, Lori, and Leni are about to get home, so we need to get this place spotless before they get here! Everyone understand!?"

Everyone nodded their heads and Lincoln looked back down at his phone, _"ok, ring the doorbell when you get here, then ill send you another text saying its ok to come in."_

Lincoln sent the text to Lori and before he had even finished, the Loud house was in an uproar. Lynn was racing through the halls, dusting every corner that looked old, even in the slightest. Luan rushed to finish blowing up the balloons while Luna and Lola put them all in their places. Lisa was upstairs monitoring every little thing that went on in the house, making sure nothing went against the plan. Lincoln barged upstairs to see what else needed to be done, he passed by Lucy who was vacuuming the carpet and various rooms upstairs, Lana was adjusting the toilets and sinks, making sure they were working properly. Everyone was helping out in some form or fashion, now it was Lincoln's turn to prepare the ultimate surprise. Ducking into Lori and Leni's room, he started working furiously, trying to finish the thing that he had started. He was nearly finished with it, all he had to do was put the finishing touches on his masterpiece.

The doorbell rang. Everyone rushed to their spots that Lincoln had assigned them, and finally, Lincoln himself slid down the railing, landing perfectly in front of the group. Everyone was now in position for the moment of truth. Everything had gone off without a hitch so far and everything seemed to be in its proper place. Everyone was nervous with excitement; they couldn't wait to see how their sister would react. Leni normally loved things like this, but this was, without a doubt, going to be the best surprise she ever got, especially from her siblings. Lincoln sent the innocent text to Lori and then, seconds later, the door opened.

* * *

 **I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I know it's not the most exciting, but it was really enjoyable for me. I only hope that feeling is reciprocated when you read it. I honestly wasn't expecting this chapter to be this long. I was thinking maybe 4k or so words at the most, but sure enough, 5.5k words later, here it is.**

 **I thank everyone for reading and I encourage you to leave a review, even if you don't have anything to critique me on. I only ask that if you do have something to critique me on, that you tell me how I can improve on it to make my story even better, don't just tell me how terrible of a writer I am. Thanks again for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Once again, thanks for all the support in this chapter. I really do appreciate everyone reading my story. Now over 10,000 views, seriously! Thanks so much! In this chapter, The party is coming on! And even more! I hope you enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped"**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

The last text she got from Lincoln was at three-forty-five. It was now four-thirty and they had already picked up Leni's prescription and she had nearly picked out a dress. It hadn't taken very long for her to do this at all, to both Lori and Rita's surprise. There had to be something else to keep them distracted, but what? The dress that Leni had picked out really did make her eyes pop and it highlighted her hair really well. She may not have been the smartest, but she knew what she was doing when it came to clothing; that was one thing, of many, that Lori had to admire about her immediate younger sister.

"This is it! This is for sure the one!"

"Alright Leni! Let's check out and get going!"

Already? No, it was too soon. Lincoln hadn't given them the okay yet!

"Wait!" she exclaimed, probably a bit too loud. The two girls in front of her swiveled around and stared at her in confusion. "Leni! OMG, it would literally be a fashion disaster if you didn't get matching shoes!"

"I don't know, I think Leni would be fine..."

"OMG! Lori, you are so right! Ugh, I can't imagine what would have happened if I got home and found that none of my shoes matched this dress!"

Score. That gave them at least fifteen more minutes. And that wasn't even including the time it was going to take for them to get home from the mall. More time for Lincoln to get ready. Lori looked closer at the dress that Leni decided on. The teal color really did look great on Leni, and the light grey, diagonal streaks, which narrowed to a point as they climbed up the dress a few inches, lined the bottom of the dress. And then to top it all off, combining all of that with the flowery lace design made for an amazing flutter effect when Leni twirled around. Leni even chose the perfect length right above her kneecaps, keeping herself modest enough, yet not taking away from the raw beauty of it all. As a matter of fact, Lori was so intrigued by how well Leni pulled off that dress, that she totally lost track of time.

"These are the perfect shoes to go with this dress. I want them!"

"Okay Leni, lets go check out now. Lori, ya coming?"

"Huh?" Lori wasn't paying attention so she let out a response that was almost automated. "Yeah, I'm coming." Then she remembered what her mission was. Her mind broke away from Leni's gorgeous dress and rapidly started generating ideas as quickly as she could.

"Leni, don't you think you should get just a small snack?"

"Hmm, now that I think about it, I am kind of hungry."

"We're going to have plenty to eat when we get home, save your appetite."

"Oh, okay. I guess not Lori."

"But mom, I'll pay for it!"

"As generous as that is, I'll have to decline. Now come on! We have to hurry home!"

"Ugh..." Lori's efforts were at the point where they were proving to be fruitless. If only she had told her mom that Lincoln wasn't finished setting up yet, this would be a walk in the park. But the suddenness of their mother arriving at the hospital made Lori go straight into panic mode, and she wasn't able to get out of it until it was already too late. She could tell her mother right now, but what would be the point, Lori had already tried nearly everything from trying to convince them to search every single store for the perfect outfit, to getting them to have a quick bite to eat, even to the point of walking slowly in front of them so that they would be forced to go slower as well. They were practically finished and Lori had nearly run out of ideas.

"Mom, wait. I gotta use the bathroom!"

"Ugh, fine. You've got three minutes. We'll wait here and if you're not out by that time, then we're leaving."

"Okay! I'll be right back! I promise!" Three minutes to use the bathroom? That was unheard of in the Loud house, even for their own mother. Why was she expecting Lori to do any different? Whatever the case, it didn't matter that much to Lori. That was going to be three more minutes towards Lincoln setting up as best as he could, as quick as he could. Lori didn't even actually need to use the bathroom anyway. So in the spirit of burning as much time as possible, she got her phone out and started a timer. She would walk into their line of sight right at the three minute mark, then would take her sweet time strolling back to her mom and Leni, hopefully exhausting at least fifteen more seconds in the process. At this point, every second mattered.

Lori, curious as to how long she had just been standing in the bathroom, looked back down at her phone to see how much time had passed. To her surprise, only thirty seconds were left. Wiping her brow, she opened the door wide and left, then searched for the ideal place to walk out at where she would most likely be seen so that she could stall them further. Five seconds now. Taking a deep breath in, she started walking down the hallway where the two of them were waiting. Lori successfully came into their line of sight right at the three minute mark, but Rita wasted no time. As soon as she saw Lori, she grabbed Leni, got up, and started walking towards the exit. So much for fifteen more seconds.

Knowing it would be useless to stay behind, Lori caught up to them, then started forming a text message to Lincoln. By the time she sent it, they were already out the door of the mall and nearly to the van. The time was now Four-Fifty-Five.

 _"I cant stall any longer, mom insists we come home now! We'll be there in literally 5 minutes..."_

Lori instinctively climbed into the front seat of the car with Leni sitting right behind her, flaunting her new dress and shoes. If Lori was being honest with herself, she was actually kind of envious of Leni. It really was a beautiful dress, and as usual, Leni did a marvelous job choosing the right shoes to go with that dress. Lori was distracted by a buzzing in her pocket. She took her phone out and read the message that Lincoln had sent.

 _"ok, ring the doorbell when you get here, then ill send you another text saying its ok to come in."_

Vanzilla was already speeding down the road when Lori got the message. Five minutes may have been too generous. Rita was more than excited for Leni's surprise, which in turn, gave her a lead foot, and Leni was bouncing up and down in her seat she was so excited. Normally she would be lightheaded and feeling sick to her stomach, but her excitement was getting the better of her. Thinking more about it, Leni was always nervous about getting in the car. Every time they drove somewhere she would start off being really nervous and then it would eventually turn into being lightheaded and dizzy; but not this time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she had that car accident when she was two. If that was the case, then Lori thought that maybe she should start letting Leni ride in the front, especially since her blood pressure was even higher now, it was going to be even worse when she got in the car.

Time flew by and before they knew it, they were back at Casa Loud. Leni zipped out of the van and rushed to the door. Lori was barely able to get out of the car before she blurted out to her sister, "Leni! Wait!"

Her hand froze right above the door handle and she looked back at Lori. "What is it this time?"

"Allow me!" Lori then stepped in front of the door, gently moving Leni out of the way and then rang the doorbell. The shock that came with ringing the doorbell was still there, but Lori had done it so many times by now that she was used to it.

"What was that for?" Leni asked. Their mother had an equally confused look on her face.

"For... dramatic effect?" Lori shrugged. Leni still had a look of confusion in her eyes and Rita slapped her own forehead. But before either of them could do anything, Lori's phone buzzed once again, signaling to her that they were ready inside. Lori slowly reached out for the handle and twisted it counter-clockwise. The door flung open and Lori moved herself to the side, allowing her little sister to enter first.

"Welcome home Leni!" The chorus of Loud kids rang out through the neighborhood. Leni stared in awe at the sight that was before her. Teal and blue balloons were scattered across the ceiling as well as streamers of the same color stretching along the top of the wall. The aroma of chocolate cake filled the air and everyone's nostrils, pleading them to come try some. Then there was the centerpiece. It took Lincoln seven bottles of paint and almost thirty minutes to finish, then he had to wait another thirty minutes for it to dry was well. The thing that Lincoln was the most ecstatic for Leni to see, was a giant hand painted banner that read, "Welcom Home Leni!"

Lori saw the banner and was trying so hard not to laugh, with quite the strained look on her face. Rita was in a similar position, although more able to resist the urge to chuckle, but none of that really mattered. Leni was so overjoyed to see everyone welcoming her home. Everything, to her, was so perfect. From the smell of chocolate, to her favorite colored balloons and streamers, everything was perfectly planned out. The fact that Lincoln had accidentally misspelled "welcome" was far from Leni's mind right now. All she could think about, was how great of a family she had. The more she thought of it, the less she held back. Leni fell to her knees, still looking up at the sight before her. It was so amazing what they did, that Leni couldn't help herself, and tears started rolling down her face.

Rita began to become concerned, thinking Leni might be having another panic attack when Lincoln immediately rushed to her side, wanting to figure out what was wrong. But when she felt him come close to her, she wrapped her arms around him. The suddenness of it made Lincoln throw his hands up, but when he realized what was going on, his expression softened and he wrapped his arms around her. Leni always gave warm hugs, and Lincoln was no stranger to this, but the effect never dulled. Leni's hugs were always welcoming and pleasant, and Lincoln was always more than receptive to them. He loved it, and he loved his sister.

"Who did this?" Leni asked the group, beginning to break way from Lincoln.

"We all pitched in, but ultimately, it was Lincoln's idea dude," she heard from in front of her. "He was the one who planned all this out."

"Aw, Linky!" She grabbed hold of Lincoln once again, even tighter this time, but to the boy, it wasn't uncomfortable in the slightest. He welcomed the embrace yet again and returned the favor, more than willingly. Leni's hugs were like those of angels, or at least the closest thing to it. No matter what kind of variables there were, maybe tighter or softer, happy or sad, they always felt so amazing. Even when Leni wasn't feeling that good, she still gave the warmest hugs ever. Luckily, this wasn't the case, making her hugs feel even better.

Lincoln briefly opened his eyes and happened to gaze up at Lori. It really was sweet to her that Lincoln planned all this out, but she wouldn't be able to control herself until Lincoln knew about the banner. As soon as he made eye contact with her, she pointed at it. Still holding onto his sister, he turned his head and looked at what she was pointing at. His face completely tensed up and he cringed, mentally slapping himself for making such a rookie mistake. Why didn't anyone tell him he misspelled "welcome?" Did no one else notice it either? There was always some kind of flaw in every plan he had. Whether it was something as small as this, or completely forgetting a crucial detail. The plan itself went off without a hitch, so it was considered a success, but he just couldn't get over the fact that he misspelled one of the more well known words in the English language. Oh well, it's the thought that counts right? Besides, it wouldn't take more than thirty seconds to fix.

"Thanks so much guys!" Leni said as she broke away from Lincoln. "I can't even, like, begin to thank you enough!"

"Leni! Your dress looks so pretty!" Lola exclaimed.

"Thanks I just got it, like, today!" Leni replied, wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"Based on the type of fabric, the tightness of the stitching, and well planned color scheme, I would have to estimate this dress costing, hmm... $159.99"

"Actually, it was on sale! It only cost $72.95!"

"Those are some rockin' shoes too mate! They look expensive. How much were they?"

"Okay guys, listen to this! On the rack, the price tag said that these heels were $65.99, but the lady at the front counter of the store we went to, said that they looked so good on me, and that they went so well with the dress, that she let me have them for Fifteen dollars!"

Everyone except Lori and Rita gasped at that revelation. Only fifteen dollars for a pair of high heels that nice? Even Lincoln knew that was a big deal. He didn't know much about clothing, but if he didn't know anything else about clothes, he could at least tell when something was expensive, and those shoes looked quite expensive to him. Even his own classic orange polo cost more than fifteen dollars.

"Can we have cake now?" Lana complained.

"Normally, I would scream for Ice cream! But this time, I-cing for cake! Haha, get it?" The collective, yet satisfying groan, echoed throughout the room. From the kitchen could be heard a resounding hearty laugh from Lynn Sr.

"Good one Luan!" He yelled out.

"Let's eat before we have any cake!" Rita told them. Lynn responded with, "Supper's on the table in five!"

* * *

Leni was sitting on her bed reading one of her fashion magazines, having just finished a piece of cake. The night they just had was amazing. They started off with an amazing meal that consisted of roast beef and vegetables with some amazing gravy that went with it. After that they dug straight into the cake and tore it apart in a matter of minutes; Leni was barely able to salvage that one piece she just had. Then they went on to play some party games, which, of course, Lynn won every single one of them. Then to close off the night, they watched a short movie. Overall, it was tons of fun, and so far, Leni wasn't having any problems. But Lori was.

Leni needed to know about what the doctor told her, and Lori was the only one who could tell her. Mom and dad would be informed eventually, but Leni had to be the first to know. She deserved to be the first to know about her rare condition. But Lori just wasn't able to bring herself to do it. How could you deliver news like that to anyone, let alone Leni? News like that would be devastating to anyone, not just her. She didn't want to tell Leni what happened, but she had to. She was going to find out eventually, so why not tell her? But, if that was the case, then why tell her?

Lori's mind raced as she walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Dozens of different thoughts popped into her head about how she was going to break the news; about _if_ she was going to break the news. It was so difficult making the decision to do so. It would have been so much easier if there hadn't been any hesitation. But the doctors orders were that Leni had to be home first. And then she found out about the party, she couldn't have told her during the party, it would have ruined the mood. She had to do it as soon as possible now though.

Fifteen minutes in the shower turned into twenty, twenty turned into thirty, and thirty turned into long enough for the water heater to stop working. It was a good thing there wasn't anyone waiting for her or they would be disappointed to find only cold water running. But even though it wasn't hot, Lori still stood underneath the cold water emerging from the shower-head. What was she doing? Stalling? Staying in the shower so that she didn't have to divulge the big secret? As soon as she entered her's and Leni's room, she was going to have to say something. Best case scenario was that Leni would ask and then she wouldn't feel as bad as if she just dropped it on her all of a sudden. For some reason though, maybe it was the fact that Leni was a bit forgetful, she didn't think that she would get that lucky.

Goosebumps were covering Lori's body now and she was nearly shivering. Despite her current situation, she forced herself out of the shower. The water got very cold, very quick when they ran out of warm water and Lori was not about to let hypothermia set in. It happened to Lincoln once because he was desperate to take a shower before school started, despite the fact that he was already running late. The freezing cold water, combined with the fact that it was already winter, gave him a mild case of hypothermia. He was taken to the doctor who told them what happened and he ended up being out of school for a week.

Lori dried herself off, then wrapped a towel around her torso and another around her hair and, with shivers still running down her spine, made her way to her room. With each step she took, the floorboards underneath the carpet creaked and moaned. Nobody was asleep yet so it's not like she was trying to be quiet, but rather, it was the fact that the sound indicated that she was moving forward. Of course, nobody seemed to care what she was doing at the time. Nobody knew about the terrible clash that was going on in her mind. They only cared about themselves for the time being, a creaky floorboard meant nothing to them. Lori was still shivering, but now, it was partly for a a different reason.

The door to their room had been left open. The reason? Lori had no idea, but that wasn't even on her mind right now. "Hi Lori."

"Hey Leni..." The silence lingered between them for a couple seconds. The silence bothered Lori more than she cared to admit. There should have been something, rustling pages, moaning in the walls, but no. There was nothing. Lori couldn't stand the silence anymore. "When I'm finished getting ready for bed, I have to tell you what the doctor said."

Too late to put it off now.

"Okay..." She didn't even look up. Her eyes remained glued to that fashion magazine. Lori watched Leni's eyes as they scanned across the page, then watched her fingers flip the piece of paper to look at the next page. It was strange, yet intriguing how into fashion Leni was. She wasn't even kind of a jerk when it came to fashion, unlike some people she knew, but at the same time, Lori didn't think there was anyone in the entire city of Royal Woods that could even hold a candle to her knowledge and skill when it came to fashion design. There wasn't anyone that Lori knew personally that could out-do Leni if it came down to a dress making contest or something like that, Lori was convinced that nobody she knew would even come close.

As Lori slipped on a loose fitting t-shirt and some underwear, she started wondering about Leni. Yes she was going to be different from the rest of them in some aspects because she was adopted, but what was it about that girl? She always seemed so laid-back. Wasn't there anything that ever bothered her? Who doesn't ever worry about themselves from time to time? What kind of mindset did Leni have that gave the impression of being so peaceful? So at-rest? It even bothered Lori how she was able to do this so easily. Even when it really hit Leni that she was adopted, when she really realized that fact, she wasn't even fazed by it. How?

Lori, still being freezing cold from the end of that shower, threw on some pajama pants as well and strolled over to her own bed and fell on it, laying back perpendicularly. Her hair flowed across the side of the bed closer to the wall, creeping its way down to the floor, and her legs fell nearly to the floor on the other side, which was facing Leni's bed. She was sprawled out in such a way that made her shirt come up just enough to show her belly button. Not bothering taking a moment to fix it, Lori closed her eyes for just a moment, thinking some more about Leni. It wasn't too long before realizing that she nearly drifted off in this position. Luckily, when she woke herself up, Leni was still staring intently into the pages of that magazine. They needed to start talking now. If they didn't, Lori would keep finding excuses not to and Leni would undoubtedly forget.

"Okay, Leni." Lori stated, her eyes now completely open and her hands visibly shaking more. "We need to talk."

"Oh yeah. I like, forgot. What is it we need to talk about again?"

"I need to tell you what the doctor told me, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Leni was still exactly the same as before. Did anything even change? "What did the doctor say?"

"Are you sure you're ready?"

Saying that, Lori finally sat up and adjusted her shirt, shooting a brief glance at Leni in the process. That was all she needed to see. Leni knew exactly what that look meant. She didn't want to hear what the doctor said anymore, if Lori was this upset, then there was no doubt in her mind that Leni had to prepare herself to hear bad news. She didn't know what Lori was about to say. But the look that crossed Lori's face, the one that was still imprinted on it, was not one that she used very often. That face never meant something good. So Leni, bowed her head a bit, and prepared herself for the worst.

Leni nodded her head slowly at first, tightening her lips. Then, her head nodded faster. "Yes. I am."

"Okay..." Lori looked up at her sister briefly and noticed that her expression was much more somber now, much more serious. It only made Lori's job that much harder, knowing that she was going to have to tell her such terrible news. "I'll tell you the good news first."

There was good news? With Lori's face being like that, how could there possibly be good news? It didn't really matter, so Leni decided to just roll with it. "Right."

"The good news is that, for one, you're not pregnant, and two, you didn't get any... um... They didn't give you any... diseases from... well... you know."

"Um, do you mean STDs?"

"Yeah... they didn't give you any."

"Okay?" Leni was a bit more confused now. If she didn't have any STDs and she wasn't pregnant, then what was the bad news? Was it something even worse than that? What could possibly be worse than that? Wait. Is it possible that she could... no way... If that was going to be the case then they might as well have done it themselves. The only difference between her kidnappers doing it, and finding out now is that it wouldn't be sudden. Everyone would know what was going on, and they would all be scared, sad, maybe terrified. It would be the same thing that happened a few months ago, except this time it would be real. It wouldn't be the same person, but it was still going to have the same effect on everyone.

That was what she was worried about. She wasn't worried about herself, but rather about how everyone else would feel about it. She remembered how she felt the last time that happened. It wasn't real that time, but it still had an effect on them. Something that impacted them, even to this day. But if this was happening for real, then there wasn't going to be anything changing it this time, no waking up from a dream. Leni was hoping that she wasn't going to say it, but the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. It seemed like the only option left if there was nothing else wrong, and she didn't think that Lori would be so upset if it that wasn't the case.

"Okay... so what's the bad news?" Leni was now expecting the absolute worst possible scenario. There was nothing that she wanted less than what she thought Lori was about to say.

"There's more than one part of the bad news," she started. Leni was trembling now, scared to death of what the doctor may have had to tell Lori. "Do you remember the medicine you had to take in the hospital?" Leni nodded before Lori continued. "Well, the doctor said you might have to take that for the rest of your life. But that's not the worst part."

Here it came, the big message that Lori had to tell Leni. Lori was on the verge of completely breaking down, and Leni looked like she was about to fall into tears as well. Neither of them were looking forward to this moment and both of them even tried to avoid it completely, and yet, here they were at the end of the day, finally at the point of no return. Leni didn't know what the news was, and Lori didn't know how Leni would react to such news. However, neither of them could have even come close to predicting what would happen next.

"Leni, the doctor said that you're not going to be able to have children, ever."

"Wait..." Leni started with a slightly confused look on her face. "Really? That's it? That's the worst thing the doctor said?"

* * *

 **Well, I think we're getting close to the end of the story now. I think just two or three more chapters and we'll be finished.**

 **Warning, this may include spoilers depending on how deep you read into it.**

 **A self-imposed rule that I try to abide by when writing, is that I try to write most of my stories as if they're all in the same universe and as of now, I don't have any exceptions to this rule, at least when it comes to Loud House fanfics that I have written. Yes, that includes my "Requiem for a Loud" fanfic. You'll see that it says it's a Fan-made, AU ending, so that means that both stories are in the same universe. I kind of hinted at that close to the end of this chapter. Maybe you noticed that all of the Loud kids are generally nicer to each other, and to be completely honest with you, the slight OOC of them was an accident. BUT, I used that to my advantage. It wasn't originally the case that this story and my Requiem story were in the same universe, but after re-reading almost the entire story (this one I mean), I only found two places where this rule made the two stories inconsistent with each other, so I went back and changed those two things very quickly. I doubt you will even notice the difference if you go back to check yourself because my changing things in these chapters didn't affect any part of the story at all. I don't even remember anymore what those two things were, that's just how inconsequential they were to the story, at least I think so.**

 **Once I am finished with this story, I do have another one planned that is more obviously in the same universe as it has to do with the fact that Leni is adopted. I hope you will tune in for that story, but before I start that one, I would like to finish this one first. Like I said, there's only like two or three more chapters left so hopefully I can keep spitting out chapters as quick as I have been recently, that way I can get started on this other fanfic.**

 **As usual, I thank you for reading, and I apologize for making this note so long. I do ask that you would leave a review, even if you don't critique me** **. I do ask as always that if you do critique my story, that you would not just hate on me, and give me something to improve upon. Thanks again for reading, and I hope to have the next chapter out soon!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to everyone for all the support for this story, now over 11k views, and not to mention that the previous chapter officially made this story my longest one ever! I love all of you! Anyway, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, but in the middle of it, I got writers block really bad, and I had two back-to-back trips that I was going on. I wanted to finish it before those trips, but I guess we know how that turned out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped!"**

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 **Chapter 10**

Lori was quite taken aback by Leni's response. That's it? Who responds like that when you tell them that they can't have kids? It was almost like she was expecting something drastically different. "What do you mean?"

"That can't be the worst of it. You are way too bothered by this for that to be all there is to it."

"What?"

"I thought you were gonna say that I was gonna die! I was like, totally scared! I was already starting to think about how I would say goodbye to everyone!"

"What? No! Leni, you're not gonna die from this!" Lori now understood Leni's underwhelming, yet surprising reaction. She realized that she would probably do the same thing if she thought that she was going to die. Something like that was not to be joked around with, as they learned a couple months ago. But why did Leni think that was going to happen? Was Lori really overreacting about it that much? One would think that something like never being able to have kids again would be a pretty good reason to be as bothered as Lori was by it. But it still made her think. Why did it come off like that to Leni? Was it something she said previously?

"Lori, don't get me wrong, I really am sad that I can't have kids anymore, but..." Lori now looked up and started listening. "When you said that I didn't have any STD's and that I wasn't pregnant, that was the first thing I thought of, and I couldn't get it out of my head. Then when you said that my blood press wasn't the worst thing, I couldn't think of anything else that could be worse than that... except dying..." She Leni looked down at her bed, seeming to be deep in thought. "I guess that's just how I think about things, isn't it. It's just who I am, I'm just the ditsy sister that's... not even technically related to you guys."

That took a turn for the worse. Lori was definitely not expecting that and was now responsible for making her feel better. "No Leni... You're literally so much more than that." Lori got up off of her bed and made the four foot trek to Leni's. Leni moved from the middle and gave room for Lori to sit down next to her. Has this been the way she's felt this whole time? How did they not notice anything earlier? "I don't think that there's anyone in the entire city that knows as much about fashion as you do, _and_ is as nice and sweet as you are. Not to mention you've been part of this family for longer than almost half of us. If anything, that makes you more family than they are."

Leni sat still listening to the words her sister was saying. They were comforting, sure, but not satisfying. It helped to calm her down, but there was still a hole there, a hole that needed to go away. And she didn't know how to make it disappear. "Thanks Lori... but... I just..." Leni was having trouble gathering the right words together, "I just... don't know..."

"Listen Leni. Family isn't about who you're related to. It's not about having the same mom or dad or the same siblings." Lori took a deep breath in and looked at Leni before she continued. "It's about being there for each other. I know I haven't been the best at doing that, and there's probably some things that I did where it's too late to make up for it. I wasn't always there for you, and to be completely honest, there will probably be some more times like that, hopefully not as often anymore, but I'm here for you now. Whatever you need me to do, it doesn't matter, just tell me."

Leni didn't do anything at first. She just sat there, remaining completely still. Lori turned her head straight forward and let out a deep sigh. Then, Leni leaned her head over onto Lori's shoulder. She didn't do anything else, she didn't look to the side, she didn't close her eyes, she didn't start crying. Leni just lay there with her head resting on Lori's shoulder. Lori was slightly startled when she did that, but didn't do anything else about it. She just lay there as well, letting Leni do whatever she wanted. It was strange, Leni had never acted this way before. She had always known that she was adopted, but had never let it be known that she felt even the slightest out of place. Had she always felt this way? Or did it just now pop up for some reason? Lori started stroking her sister's hair, hoping to help calm her down a little bit.

Leni sighed, keeping her head rested on Lori's shoulder. She didn't mean to say that to Lori. It was just her way of trying to calm herself down after thinking that she was going to die. However, it did trigger a thought that brought itself into her head occasionally. She never really felt like she didn't belong. She knew that she was a Loud just like all the others, but there were times when she just couldn't help but be curious as to what it would be like if her birth parents never died in that wreck. Lori was never around for any of those times so seeing her like this for the first time was probably a little distressing to her.

"I'm sorry..."

Lori looked at Leni as if she was crazy. Another thing to add to list of surprising things that Leni has done today. "What do you mean you're sorry? I should be the one that's sorry for not being there for you more often."

"I'm sorry because I said something that I didn't mean to say. I know I'm a part of the family. When I said that I wasn't even related to you guys, I only said that because of the moment. I shouldn't have said it, I just made everything seem worse... I'm sorry..."

Lori was dumbfounded now. She had no idea that Leni was even capable of thinking something like that. Other than that time when she picked the lock on the briefcase hidden in the backyard, Lori had never had evidence that she was able to think that deeply about anything. It took her even more by surprise. And to top it all off, she could also tell that Lori seemed bothered by what she said, even if it she didn't mean to say it.

"Wow... I... never knew that you could do that..."

"Do what?" Leni asked. She was back again.

"Heh, you're funny Leni." Lori could see the strain on Leni's face from trying to figure that out. "I mean, I never knew that you had thoughts like that, meaningful thoughts. Just goes to show that I haven't been paying as much attention to you guys as I should have."

"Oh... okay."

"So anyways Leni, if that's not what was bothering you, then what was it?"

"Oh yeah. Sometimes, I don't know why, but like... I can't help but wonder what it would be like if I never was adopted. I'm not even upset about it or anything, I just get like, umm... whatever it was that killed the cat."

Lori thought for a moment, then said, "Curious?"

"Yeah, I just get curious sometimes. It's probably not good for me, but I just can't help it."

"Well don't worry about it. You can talk to me about anything, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Lori."

Leni reached around her sister's shoulder and gave her a hug which Lori returned. Normally Lori wouldn't notice little things like this, but now, she too was noticing how warm Leni's hugs were. Despite the fact it was just a hug from the side, she felt so warm and fuzzy. It really was amazing and so comforting. All of a sudden, it made sense to Lori why Lincoln seemed hesitant to break away from Leni's hug earlier that day, assuming Lincoln felt the same when it happened to him. How did she do it? No matter what kind of mood she was in she was always able to deliver the warmest hugs in the world. Perhaps that was just one of the many mysteries of Leni.

"So..." Leni started again. "I can't ever have children? Like, ever?"

Lori knew this was coming eventually. Even if her original reaction was not expected, Lori knew that she was going to be upset over this. "I'm sorry Leni, but yeah. That's what the doctor told me."

Leni didn't move a muscle, she just kept her arms wrapped around Lori who went back to stroking her little sister's hair. It was right about now that the reality of the situation hit Leni like a ton of bricks. Her expression slowly deformed into one that was completely different. It didn't take too long for Lori to start hearing sniffles and whimpering and before long, she started feeling her shirt becoming slightly moist. Lori began to feel something crawling up from the pit of her stomach as well. She knew that out of all of the Loud sisters, Leni was going to be the best mother of all of them. To have that almost completely stripped away from her must have been dreadful. How was she going to break that kind of news to the rest of the family? How would everyone take it? How would Lincoln take it?

Lori remembered how Lincoln practically blamed himself for Leni's disappearance. He was so upset at himself for that. It wasn't until they visited Leni in the hospital for the first time that Lincoln even considered thinking about anything else. It was possible that he still blamed himself for what happened. Adding Leni's condition onto that heap probably wouldn't be a good idea. If there was one thing that they all knew Lincoln was bad about, it was going to far when he felt bad. No matter how bad he felt in the past, he hadn't yet gotten to the point of feeling so terrible that he would try to do something to himself; cutting himself, physically beating himself, or even worse. But despite the fact that he hadn't done any of those things yet, Lori felt like he got dangerously close these last few days; all it would take is a gentle push in the wrong direction and Lincoln could start hurting himself. Lori would never want that, none of his sisters would.

Leni's mind wandered to Lincoln. He was the one who was there when she was kidnapped. She didn't know entirely how he felt, but she did know that he felt responsible for it, unreasonably so. If he knew what had really happened, maybe it would help him. Of course there was also the possibility that it could just backfire completely, making him feel even worse. She already felt terrible for him having to feel this way, and if she made him feel any worse than he already did, not only would Lincoln have another problem to deal with, but Leni would have to live with the guilt of knowing she was the one who made him feel that way. But she didn't really have much of a choice. He was going to find out eventually and it would be better if he found out sooner.

The more her mind wandered, the more tired she got and it wasn't too long until Leni fell asleep on Lori's shoulder. Lori had a feeling that this was going to happen as soon as she laid back on Leni's bed. It was too late to do anything about it now. Because who would dare disturb the sleep of the amazing Leni Loud. Lori sighed herself and made an attempt to fall asleep. It didn't take long at all to do this and once she was asleep, neither of them woke up until the next morning.

* * *

Lana tossed and turned in her bed, struggling to go to sleep. Not even hops right by her side, which normally put her right to sleep, was helping her. Every time that she wants to stay up late, she ends up falling asleep with no problem. Then on the one night that she actually wants to get some sleep, none comes to her. She just laid awake in her bed, staring at the ceiling. There wasn't even the slightest hint of tiredness. No droopy eyes, no fatigued muscles, not even a yawn. Why was this happening? What did she do to deserve this. Santa should be so happy that she's being a good girl and actually trying to go to bed for once. But of course, the one time that she decided to do the right thing, ends up being the one time that she can't even do it, no matter how hard she tried.

Her mind drifted off to Leni. She was curious as to what happened to her. The last time Lana saw her, just earlier that evening, she still had faint bruises on her arms, legs, and even her head. She wouldn't have doubted if she had bruises on her stomach and back too. She cringed just at the mere thought of someone beating up Leni that bad. If it were just a few months ago, she wouldn't have put Lori, Lynn, or even Lola in extreme cases, above hurting her like that. Not anymore though, hopefully they all knew better after nearly having to experience Lincoln dying, but that was far from her mind at the moment.

Why would anyone want to hurt Leni like that? She was so sweet and nice. Lana didn't think it was possible that anyone would want to hurt her, even on accident. Sure she can be a little dull sometimes, but she never wants anyone to suffer because of her. It was almost impossible for Leni to be mean. So why would anyone want to be mean to her? Lana still couldn't figure it out. But she did figure out why she couldn't go to sleep. It was because she was thinking about Leni too much; poor, sweet, innocent Leni. How could someone possibly be so evil? So evil as to hurt someone just because they wanted to. Not even Lola was that bad, even at her worst.

Lana thought that maybe a drink of water would help her go to sleep. So she got up and, leaving her room, went to the bathroom.

Underneath her, the floor squealed with every step she took. Despite the carpet softening the blow of her footsteps, it was still loud enough to gain the attention of anyone who might have still been awake, assuming anyone was even awake at this point. It was well past midnight by now and any noise that was being made from everyone else trying to go to sleep had ceased. No tennis ball bouncing against the wall, no acoustic guitar strumming, no puppet routines or "bobby-boo-boo-bear" calls. Just the sound of the floor squeaking beneath Lana's feet.

The glass of water didn't help.

She got and drank her glass of water then ran back to her room and into her bed before any monsters had a chance to get her. But as she jumped back into her bed, she started thinking about Leni again. She was home now, safe and sound. But why did that have to happen to her? Leni was too nice for anyone to do that. Any of them being kidnapped would have been better than Leni. The more she thought about her ditsy older sister, the more tired she got, although she didn't know it.

* * *

"Be careful Lana!"

"Don't worry Leni, I do this all the time."

Lana was climbing up the side of the house to retrieve a frisbee that had been tossed up there on accident. It wasn't the first time she had done something like this and it certainly wouldn't be the last time. Leni was watching in anxiousness as Lana grabbed onto the next ledge and pulled herself up with ease. She had never seen Lana do this before and it was scary thinking that she might fall. But nevertheless, Lana scaled the side of the house with ease and before she knew it, the little girl was standing on top of the house, holding the frisbee in her hand.

"Wow! You're really good at climbing!"

"Thanks Leni. Now catch!" Lana threw the disk and it hit Leni square in the nose, knocking her over. "Oops... Sorry Leni!"

"It's okay!" Leni responded as she stumbled back to her feet. "Can you get down?"

"Yeah!" she responded confidently. Lana started towards the edge of the house and as she was figuring out how to climb down, she drew a blank. She stopped at the edge, trying to remember how she got down last time, but nothing came to her mind. She looked at the grass from the top of the house and her eyes went wide. It never looked this high up before and suddenly, Lana got scared. What if she fell all that way? At best, she would break her arm or leg. At worst? She didn't even want to think about that. However, she told Leni that she could get down, and she wasn't about to let Leni know that she was scared. Besides, she just needed a minute to think of a way down.

"Are you sure you can get down?" Leni asked.

"Pfft, I'm fine! I don't need any help. I just want to... chill up here for a little bit!"

"Okay." Leni had no idea what she meant by chill. It was the middle of the summer and it felt warmer than an oven out there. Leni had never been in an oven before, but she assumed that it probably felt something like this.

A few more minutes passed and Lana was still stuck on top of the roof. Leni was started to get more worried now. She didn't know how long it had been, nor did she know what "chill" meant in this circumstance, but she could tell that something was wrong. Lana kept walking over to the edge of the roof and looking over it, then after a few seconds, her face would crinkle up and she would walk back towards the center.

"Lana, do you need help?"

Lana was once again on the edge of the house when Leni asked, "No Leni! I told you, I can..."

 ** _Crack!_**

"Whoa!" The very edge of the roof where Lana was holding onto gave out underneath her, and Lana started falling. Instinctively, she reached for the nearest ledge and grabbed onto it, barely able to keep her fingers on the ledge, which was creaking and groaning under Lana's fingers. She was already nervous from pacing back and forth on the roof, but now, her whole body was trembling. "Help me Leni!"

Without missing a beat, Leni sprinted over to the spot where Lana was dangling and held her arms out, ready to catch her. "Let go Lana! I'll catch you!"

Leni wasn't completely sure of herself on this matter. As she looked up, the sun glared in her eyes, almost obscuring her view of her little sister. Not to mention at this angle, it was hard for her to tell how far away Lana was. It could have been fifty feet, or just ten. Nevertheless, Lana needed help right now, and Leni was going to do whatever she could. The priority at the moment was Lana.

Another sharp crack was heard and Lana plummeted toward the earth. Everything was moving in slow motion for her. She watched as the wood she was gripping slipped out of her fingers and started falling, hovering just above where she was. She saw the edge that she was holding onto, now with a clear crater where her hand had been, get farther and farther away, faster and faster. Leni kept her eyes on the girl that was descending through the air, slowly getting faster and faster as more seconds ticked by.

To anyone who happened to glance at them, it happened in the blink of an eye; the four year old falling from the roof, the young teen catching her. But to those two, it seemed to take forever. So when Lana finally came to rest in Leni's arms, both of them trembling at this point, it was almost as if they thought it was never going to happen. They looked into each others eyes for a moment, and then Lana buried her head in Leni's chest, wrapping her arms around her.

"Thanks Leni..."

"Don't worry about it... you need to be more careful though." The two of them went back into the house, the older still carrying the younger.

* * *

The longer she held onto that memory, the easier it became to fall asleep. All it took was just a few minutes for Lana to fall fast asleep. If she had known that all it would have taken was to think about Leni, she would have been asleep hours ago. Just thinking of that time was comforting to her. She already gave warm hugs in real life, but even the memory of Leni's hugs were enough to feel all warm and fuzzy. It was the most amazing feeling in the world, and Lana didn't think that there was anything comparable to it, not even in the slightest.

Her eyes didn't open again until the next morning.

* * *

 **Well, that's the end of chapter 10. I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **As always, I ask that you would please leave a review, even if you don't have something to critique me on. If you do critique me on something, I ask that you would give me something that I can improve upon, don't just hate on my story (I'll delete your comment if you do anyway). Thanks again and I hope to get the next chapter out soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks to everyone for supporting my story so far, I love all of you. I was kind of blocked a little bit trying to write the beginning of this chapter, but as I came to the end, I really ended up liking the way it turned out and I hope you do too. Anyway, enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped."**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

Lincoln woke up in his room that morning, forgetting that Leni had come home the previous afternoon. So needless to say, he was not expecting to see her when he walked downstairs into the kitchen. Not only was she eating her own breakfast, she had made breakfast for everyone else. "Hurry up Linky! Your food's getting cold!"

Lincoln quickly sat down, enamored at the sight of Leni actually cooking for them. He loved it, but for some reason, wasn't sure what to think of it. It was always either him or dad cooking breakfast, never anyone else. Lynn cooked breakfast once or twice, but Leni had never done something like this. It took him by surprise that she would do something like this. It took him even more by surprise to find out that she was actually a very good cook. The bacon was perfectly crisp and crunchy and the eggs were not overcooked, neither undercooked, not to mention they were perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper. Every time he took a bite it was like he was biting into a piece of breakfast heaven. It was, to him at least, the most amazing home cooked breakfast he ever tasted.

"What made you want to do this dudette?"

"Well, the doctor told me that I can't go to school for another week, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I just did this!"

"It's really good Leni, eggcelent work! Hahahaha!"

"Thanks. What do you think Lincy?"

Lincoln was not with them at that moment. He was afar off, more than taken aback by how good the food was. It didn't even register to him that Leni asked a question. Everyone else was looking at him, not in confusion, but in understanding. They all felt the same way when they first tried Leni's breakfast. They did need to snap him out of it though.

"Hey, Linc!" Lana exclaimed, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"What? I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"We could tell. Leni asked how you liked it."

"Oh. I love it Leni! It's so good!"

Leni clasped her hands together and grinned widely. Seeing Lincoln happy like this made her ecstatic. But why only Lincoln? Why wasn't she excited knowing that the rest of them liked it as well? Lincoln thought about asking why, but soon decided against it. He didn't want to make Leni say something that she didn't want to say in front of everyone else. He would ask her when it was just the two of them. It was clear to everyone by now that Lincoln wanted to say something to Leni about it. All of them, except for Leni could tell by the look on his face. Even Lily was intrigued by Lincoln's apparent curiosity.

All day, that one question bothered Lincoln. All through class, through lunch, through recess, through any tests he had, there was constantly the question on his mind that was bugging him to no end. He was barely able to concentrate at all, which he already had a hard time doing under normal circumstances. Every five minutes was a constant reminder from his teacher or his friends that he wasn't able to focus or pay attention at all. He would turn to their attention for a minute, but not very long after, he would drift off again. It eventually got to the point where everyone, his classmates, his friends, even his teacher had to move on from it. It was all because of that one question on his mind. Why was Leni so interested in him only?

* * *

"Make those transitions smoother Luna, you're still hesitating between the chords and the riffs."

To anyone with normal ears, Luna's guitar playing would sound flawless, especially considering she had played the guitar for years. But not to Luna's personal teacher. Other than Mick Swagger, Luna considered this man to be the best guitar player in the world. Before she met him, she was an amateur at best, but after just a few lessons with him, her skill increased exponentially. If it weren't for Luna begging this guy to be her mentor, she would never be at the level she was at. There were moments where she did get annoyed with him, sometimes nearly to the point of walking out, but every time, it ended up working out in the end.

Luna played a section of music again on her acoustic guitar, playing it through twice. Once to listen to what she was doing, then again to see if she could correct it. After the seventh or eighth time playing the same section over again, she got frustrated and nearly threw the guitar down. Boy would that have been a mistake. This guitar cost her over twelve-hundred dollars and she wasn't about to smash it to pieces anytime soon. "Ugh... I can't get it down the right way..."

"You gotta relax girl... Chill out, it's okay to make mistakes. That's the whole reason we're here."

Luna took a deep breath in. He was right, getting mad or upset wasn't going to get her anywhere. That was something that she was trying to learn to control. She knew that someday, if she didn't at least try to stop, then it would get the best of her. "You're right. I'll try it again."

Luna thought for a moment, then started playing the section again. Sure enough, after letting herself calm down, she got it right. She played it again, just to make sure that the first time wasn't a fluke, then played it one more time just to get it down. Her teacher leaned back in his chair and nodded approvingly. "Well done. Try using more dynamic variation. Make sure there is an obvious difference between the loud and soft parts, not just kind of a difference."

Luna nodded and played it one more time, taking into consideration what he told her. Once she finished playing the passage, he nodded again. "Good job. Alright, for next week, have etudes twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-five ready for me."

"Got it dude. Thanks."

"See you next week Luna," he said as she packed her guitar into its case.

"See ya later dude!" Luna walked out of the practice room into the enormous band hall, lined with sound-proof insulation. Holding her case in her right hand, and her backpack slung over her left shoulder, she strolled towards the exit, absorbing all of the new information she learned. No one had ever challenged her guitar playing skills except that teacher. His ears were quick to notice any sort of variation. Before he started mentoring her, Luna's family was on the verge of shutting her out when playing her guitar. They didn't want to totally stop her from playing at all, because she picked it up pretty quickly, they were even impressed for a while when she played a few songs they knew, but when she started playing more difficult material, she plateaued and it made everyone want to make her practice anywhere but the house. But all it took was one lesson from this guy to change their minds. At the time, she improved more in one lesson than she had in over a month without lessons prior. Now, after taking lessons for over two years, she was so good that they almost didn't want her to leave the house to practice.

Despite the improvement she made in that lesson, she still felt like there was something hindering her. There was some kind of psychological effect that made her hesitate to push further and harder. She was able to figure out why in less than a few seconds. She opened the door of the band hall out into the hallway that connected all of the music rooms, expecting to see Leni waiting there, like she always was. But she wasn't there. Leni would always wait for Luna outside of the band hall while she finished up the lesson. This week wasn't the case.

Luna's heart sank when she saw the empty hallway, with no one waiting for her. Ever since Luna had started doing these weekly lessons, Leni would be waiting for her to finish so that she wouldn't be walking to the car by herself. Luna didn't realize how much that actually meant to her until now. Leni would always be able to strike up a conversation and would listen to Luna ramble on about music and about how the lesson went until they both got into Vanzilla. Now that Leni wasn't there, Luna realized just how quiet the trip was without her. It was a completely different atmosphere. Even the two of them just walking together in silence would have been better than Luna walking by herself, but here she was. Leni was waiting for her at home, safe and sound, but Luna didn't want that. She wanted Leni to be with her now.

Despite the previous weekend being nice and warm, that day ended up being rather chilly. As Luna briskly paced through the cold air, all she could her was her own footsteps. The sound of a few cars passing by broke the silence a couple times, but that was only momentary. Any other day, the chatter between her and Leni would make it almost as if nothing else was making noise. But now, she was eerily aware of the fact that there was just silence where there was once conversation.

As she approached the van, the clunking and clattering started to make itself known. Lori was waiting for her with all of the other loud siblings situated in the back, with the exception of Leni, who was still at home. Luna silently got into the empty passenger seat and made herself comfortable. This spot was normally reserved for Leni coming home from school, but Luna, taking advantage of the fact that Leni was at home, took it. The van roared as Lori shifted it into drive and started making way back home. Luna's thoughts once again drifted back to Leni. Her talking about anything and everything would always be the life of the van as they made their way home, but once again, there was just silence. It was disturbing, but Luna didn't want to think about that. Instead, she thought about how happy Leni would be once they got home. Yeah. Just the thought of that alone made her cheer up. Leni wanted to see Luna, and Luna wanted to see Leni too.

* * *

Lincoln struggled to keep his mind from wandering all day. Seeing his friends, teachers, and others were no help to him at all. But now, at the end of the day, he could start to forget all that. He could keep his mind wandering and not only would he not get called out for it, but nobody would even notice. He was now free to think whatever he wanted with no struggling to pay attention to anything. Except for the fact that his sisters were always trying to get his attention.

Of course. How could he be so stupid. Never could he have a moment that he could call his own. Everyone else always needed him for something. Whether it was breaking up a fight of some kind, being a test subject, or listening to a new poem. He didn't have any time for himself. Time so that he could think about what he wanted to think about, what he thought he needed to think about.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the time he spent with his sisters. If anything, he realized that he preferred to be around his siblings as much as possible. There were times when he daydreamed about being an only child, but those times were long gone due to the fact that there was one night where all of the girls left for the evening, leaving just him and his parents at the house. At first he thought it was a dream come true. His conceited wish was finally being granted, even if it was for a limited time only. There was no one to stop him from watching television, no one intruding in his room, and most of all, there was hardly any noise. At the moment, it seemed like complete and utter bliss. However, after just a few minutes of doing things by himself, he realized how lonely he really was like this, and he abhorred that feeling, the feeling of boredom. When his sisters were around there was always something to do. There was always a mock beauty pageant, some kind of joke to be told, or some kind of new dress to try on. But none of that was there when he was by himself. He realized that he had never truly been bored his entire life until that day, the one day that he actually had time to himself.

He was so distracted with his thoughts that he just dismissed the attention that was directed towards him as nothing but usual, rambunctious, chatter, not particularly directed at anyone. He wasn't even aware at the fact that his name had been called several times. The reality of the situation was different though. Ever since he stepped into the car, everyone noticed something different about him, and every following person who also stepped into the car noticed the same thing. It was obvious that he was distracted, because he wasn't even turning in their direction when they called his name, but it was bothering them that they didn't know what was bothering him.

"Why won't he answer?" Lola asked.

"I don't know," Lynn responded. "It's almost like he's ignoring us on purpose."

"He's being totally _hear-responsible_ , hahaha! Get it?"

"Dudes, he's probably wondering why Leni is paying closer attention to him recently than the rest of us. I tried telling him it's no biggie, but he won't listen. I say just let him work it out, and every little thing will be alright."

"But what if he's always gonna be like this?"

"I would actually prefer it that way. Then I could finally do that dark ritual I've always wanted to do that requires two people."

"As unlikely as it may seem, the odds of our male sibling remaining like this for the remainder of the week, are actually quite slim."

"Exactly. Lisa knows where it's at. I say we just leave him be dudettes."

"Ugh, fine." After Lola's final comment, the van went utterly silent. Not a single voice could be heard. Not even the sound of feet rustling against the floorboards could be heard. The sudden silence was actually unnerving to everyone, including Lincoln. He looked around at everyone, wondering why they were all quiet. No one was looking at him in a weird way and no one seemed to want his attention, but the silence was driving him crazy, eventually making him speak up.

"Why is everyone so quiet all of a sudden?"

"Oh, now he decides to speak up," quipped the queen of sass.

"Chill out Lola!" Luna hissed. "We were trying to get your attention dude and you weren't responding to anything we tried."

All of the chatter that was going on in the van before the silence was directed at him? There was no way. He would have been able to tell if they were trying to get his attention, right? So why didn't he respond to them? Was he really so distracted that he just wasn't paying attention to the rest of them? It was possible. He was having trouble paying attention in class all day, not to mention that he didn't really listen to any stories his friends may have told during lunch. Maybe, even if not intentionally, he did ignore his sisters.

"I wasn't?"

"Naw, you were completely spaced out dude. What was it you were thinking about anyway?"

"I was... just..." Lincoln was struggling to find the right words, but nothing came to mind and he eventually just gave up. "Never mind, don't worry about it."

"It's about Leni isn't it?"

Lori hit the nail on the head with that one. He didn't want to openly admit it at the moment, but that's exactly what he was thinking about. He slowly nodded his head and drooped down, whatever confidence he had left sapped from him. "I thought so..."

"Dude, you need to stop worrying about that. I'm sure its just Leni being Leni. If it really was something serious, then she would tell you."

Luna had a good point. It wasn't Like Leni to just leave someone in the dark like that, not on purpose anyway. If it was something worth worrying about, then he would have known what it was by now; Leni would have told him. But despite that assurance, it still bothered him. If it really was nothing, then why would she be so concerned about what Lincoln did and thought? There was the possibility that she wasn't telling him because it was something that he wasn't going to like. That never stopped her before, so why now? Maybe she was planning on telling him eventually? Or, maybe she just forgot. It was a possibility for sure, but for some reason it didn't seem likely.

He was finally done with this constant debate going on in his head. He was going to find out what was going on as soon as he got home. "Yup. I'm going to ask her why she's acting like this towards me when we get home."

"Wow, straight to the... point... huh?" Luan piped as she pulled out a pencil, eliciting a groan from everyone. At least Lincoln was responding now.

* * *

Lincoln set his stuff down in his room and immediately started mentally prepping himself. This was not something to be taken lightly, after all, if he says the wrong thing, then he could end up making things worse than they were before. He learned that lesson the hard way. Since that time though, he consciously made an effort to think through what he was going to say, and so far, it worked every time, as long as he didn't get cocky.

"Okay Lincoln, here's what you gotta do. You just gotta walk down the hallway, go into Lori and Leni's room, and ask Leni what's going on. That's it..."

He breathed in and out deeply several times. Why was this such a difficult task for him? Why couldn't he just get up and do it? Why was it so hard to just get up and go do what he needed to do? It was like his feet were made of lead. No matter how much he hyped himself up, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He took a few more deep breaths and started talking to himself again.

"Alright, you're going to go right now... okay, right now... AUGHHHH! Why can't I do this."

Lincoln took one last deep breath and finally committed himself to it. "okay. This is it. I'm going to do it right now." Right as he reached for the door to exit his room, the doorknob started jiggling.

Quick as a bolt of lightning, he jumped into his bed and started acting like he was reading a comic. Sure enough, who else could it be coming into his room than the one person he was trying to bring himself to talk to.

"Linky, are you busy right now?" Leni asked with her head poking through the door.

"Not really," he said, trying to act all innocent. "Why, what do you need?"

"There's a couple things that I need to tell you. I've had it on my mind for a little bit now and I just haven't been able to get a good time to tell you. Do you mind if I come in?"

"Not at all."

Leni smiled and plopped herself down left of him on his bed. Lincoln couldn't believe he was getting this lucky. Not only did he not have to even leave his room to tell Leni what he wanted to ask, but she was about to tell him what it was. He didn't even need to ask! All of the pressure that was on his shoulders to go to Leni was gone, she came to him. But there was still the question of what. What was it that she was going to tell him? Was she going to say what had happened to her? Was she even going to tell him what he wanted to hear? What if she was just going to tell him that she thought that someone had a secret crush on him. What if it was even less than that? What if she just wanted to hang out with him?

"So... how's it going?" she asked.

"Good, I guess. I am kind of curious to know why you wanted to talk to me."

"What? Can't I just, like, hang out with my cute little brother for a few minutes before that?"

"I guess that's fine," Lincoln replied. "What do you wanna do?"

"What kind of stuff do you like to do?"

"Umm, mostly I read comic books." Lincoln was not prepared for this. He wasn't against just hanging out with his sister, but he was getting more and more curious what she wanted to tell him the longer they hung out in his room. "I play a lot of video games too. I think you'll like this one." He reached in the direction that his hand-held game would normally be, but then remembered that he smashed it into pieces. The memories of that day came flooding back to him in a tsunami of emotions and his mood immediately went sour. He didn't want to play that game anymore. He thought he had gotten over that, but recalling what happened had proven him wrong. Now that Leni was sitting right there next to him, he was feeling especially terrible. Leni took notice of the way Lincoln's mood suddenly changed.

"Are you okay Linky?"

His response was almost unnoticeable, but Leni was able to tell that he was shaking his head from side to side. She knew what that meant, but before she knew it, Lincoln's face was buried in his sister's shoulder. Slowly but surely, Leni could was starting to feel streaks of water running down his cheeks onto her nice aquamarine colored dress. Leni's own facial expression turned gloomy and she slowly draped her right arm around Lincoln's shoulder and with her left, grabbed onto his free hand. She always hated it when someone, especially one of her siblings started crying. Every time it happened, all she ever wanted to do was make them feel better, no matter what. Running to the store to buy chocolate? Not a problem. Going to the attic? Even if it was infested with spiders? Scary beyond all reason for sure, but she was more than happy to do it. Getting one of her favorite dresses stained? That was going to be the least of her worries. All she wanted right now was to make Lincoln feel better, however she could. If that meant that she wasn't going to be able to wear this dress, quite possibly for another week or two, then so be it. Lincoln was her top priority at the moment and nothing was going to change that.

Lincoln was a mess. His eyes were swollen and red, his own shirt was wet with tears, and his nose was starting to drip as well. It would have been a lot worse if he didn't have a shoulder to cry on. Sure, he was embarrassed a little bit for crying in front of one of his older sisters, but to him, even with that being the case, it was always better to have someone next to you, someone who will be there for you. Leni was that someone right now. She was always that someone for him. Nearly every single time that Lincoln found himself in enough pain to start crying, Leni was always there, no matter what. Sure, any of the other older siblings had their moments with him, but Leni, for sure, was the one comforting him the vast majority of the time, and this wasn't any different.

And then she wrapped her arms around him. Immediately he could feel her warmth and any kind of feeling that was uncomfortable, even in the slightest, completely melted away. Whatever kind of tension he was feeling was gone in less than a minute. He wrapped his arms around her in return and it just got even better. He was starting to feel better now, much better. Being a guy, he was naturally hesitant to say that he loved anyone, especially someone of his age. There were times when, for some reason, it just didn't feel right. But any time that Leni had a reason to hug him, embrace him, all of those feelings vanished. He felt like he could say anything as long as Leni was right there next to him. "I love you Leni... so much..."

Smiling, and shedding a tear herself, she started stroking his white silky hair with her left hand. "I love you too Linky."

Both of them were perfectly content just staying like that for a few moments. Lincoln had now calmed down significantly and turned his head facing forward, still leaning on Leni's shoulder. "Okay, tell me what it was," she asked him. "What made you start crying?" Short, sweet, and to the point.

He wasn't about to lie to his sister. He had to tell her what it was that made him feel like that. So he opened up to her completely. He told her about how he was so into his video game that he didn't even know that she got kidnapped, revealing everything up until the point he saw drops of her blood staining the sidewalk. He talked about how he blamed himself for it and smashed his video game to pieces, also telling her that in it, was the game he thought that she would like. All while he was telling her this, Leni was sitting next to him, listening intently with an arm still wrapped around his shoulder. If it weren't for that one thing, he wouldn't have said anything, but he felt so comfortable and so safe, that nothing was going to stop him from saying whatever he wanted to say.

After he finished, she responded, "You know it was never your fault to begin with, right?"

Lincoln sighed, "yeah, everyone keeps telling me that, and I even know that it wasn't my fault, but I just have such a hard time believing it. I want to put the blame on myself because... I feel like I could have done something."

"You didn't let me finish," Leni choked. "It's true, if you were paying attention, you might have done something, but that's not all there is to it."

Lincoln was a little bewildered now. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well..." Leni started. "Those guys that were kidnapping me, they were actually trying to kidnap you."

Lincoln wasn't entirely sure how to react to this. How did Leni get kidnapped if they were trying to get him? Unless... No... Why would she do that?

"Linc..." Leni started. "Do you remember when I told you that until you're bigger and stronger than me, that it was my job to protect you?"

He nodded his head. He remembered that moment vividly, and it also answered his question of why.

"Well, that's what I was doing. When they started running after you, I knew that they were trying to hurt you and all I wanted to do was make sure you were safe, even if it meant getting myself hurt, or kidnapped, or abused." Leni paused for a moment, several more tears now rolling down her cheeks. "I know that you probably felt terrible for what happened, and I honestly don't blame you, but... if you were the one that had been kidnapped instead..." Leni finally broke down and tears started rolling down her face, "I never would have been able to forgive myself for that." Leni now wrapped herself around her brother more tightly, holding on as if she was going to lose him. "The entire time that I was kidnapped, all I could think of was you Linc... All I could think of was if you were there instead of me. Everything they did to me, I couldn't help but think that if I didn't do anything, this would have been you instead."

Leni didn't notice, but while she was saying all this, Lincoln's eyes slowly started forming tears as well. Everything else in the world didn't seem to exist at the moment. Not any other noise that the house or anyone in it was making, not any passing by cars, no phones ringing, none of that mattered. It was just those two, laying on Lincoln's bed, crying their eyes out. This new perspective that Leni revealed to him completely broke his heart. He didn't know what else to do at this point but cry. What else was there to do? The two of them just laid there, crying and holding tightly to each other as long as they could. Lincoln finally understood why Leni was so curious about everything that he was doing now, without even having to ask her no less.

Ever since their first meeting in the hospital when he noticed it, he had been tormented over it. It was something so simple that he was so bothered by, and there really wasn't any good reason behind his curiosity either. But the real kicker came when she actually wanted to tell him about it. Until that point, he really didn't have a good reason to wonder about Leni's behavior. But now that Leni told him, he didn't even have to wonder anymore. And it was something that really changed everything, everything about this whole situation. Leni was protecting him, that was all there was to it. She was doing what she thought she had to do. She must have known about the terrible, awful, unspeakable things that kidnappers do, and yet, she still risked her own safety, her own life even, so that he could be safe. It had nothing to do with anything he did. It was Leni's decision to do this. She was the one who felt like she had to do it, who felt like she needed to do it. But ultimately, that wasn't why she did it. People put off things that they need to do all the time, because no one will ever do something that they don't want to do. If someone does something, then it means that they at least kind of wanted to do it.

Leni wouldn't have let herself be kidnapped if she didn't want to. She could have just watched as Lincoln was kidnapped. But that wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to see her little brother suffer, especially not like she did. So she took his place, not because she felt like she had to, but because she wanted to.

* * *

 **Oh, man. I really enjoyed writing that chapter, especially the last part of it, and I hope you enjoyed it.** **I'm going to go ahead and tell y'all what the next chapter is going to be about, don't worry, there's not going to be any spoilers, just the basic plot. It's going to be the kidnapping from Leni's perspective as opposed to the first chapter which was Lincoln's perspective of it. I had always wanted to write the kidnapping from her perspective, but I couldn't figure out the right place to put it. After the bombshell that was dropped in this chapter, I feel like the next chapter is the perfect place to do that.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and I ask that you leave a comment, tell me how I did. Even if you don't have any criticism, please still review it anyway. I always ask that if you do criticize my story, please use constructive criticism only, don't just bash me without telling me how I can do better.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Here it is, the chapter of Leni's perspective of the kidnapping. A few chapters ago I thought that this would have been the end of the story, but I realized that I still have a few more chapters to write. I'm not going to say how many because last time I did that, I ended up being wrong. Also, the reason I got this out so early is because I don't want to have to post new chapters in the middle of the night, and I've been really busy doing various different things so I couldn't post it sooner, so I went ahead and started writing this one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter of, "Kidnapped."**

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

Love is a strange thing sometimes. A lot of people think they know what it is, but really, they don't. Everyone knows that it can make people do things that they wouldn't do under normal circumstances. Love is what causes two people to start enjoying each other's company. It's what makes those two people decide that they want to spend the rest of their lives together and get married. Love is what causes people to have children of their own, to raise and cherish. But that's not all there is to it. Love isn't just romance and all hugs and kisses. Love between a Father and his son, or between a Mother and her daughter has nothing to do with romance. Love can just be enjoying being with someone, not even in a romantic way, it could just be two guys hanging out playing video-games, or two girls chatting about the newest episode of the "Dream Boat." Love even goes so far as to make corrections when needed. Love is what tells someone that what they're doing is wrong, and then helps that person refrain from doing wrong any further. The person may not appreciate it at the time, and ultimately, it may even end up driving them away, but it wasn't started because of a lack of love. Love doesn't have to be about romance. It doesn't have to be about how you feel for someone. It's about how many sacrifices you're willing to make. What are you willing to give up for another person? Would you be willing to give up your time? Your energy? All for someone else? People do it all the time. People put their pride, possessions, and even their own lives at risk for the sake of another person all the time. A man who puts his life on the line, for the sake of his wife and children, is risking everything he has to give so that they can be safe. A woman, who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hospital bills on their child who has a brain tumor, risks driving themselves into poverty so that that child can have a chance at life.

Leni risked her own safety and even her own life so that Lincoln could be safe, so that he would stay alive.

The sun was getting pretty low in the sky. It would only be another hour or two before the light diminished completely. Leni kept yammering on as she watched Lincoln pull out his video game. It seemed to her that he kept on listening, as he kept replying, at least in some form or fashion, to everything she said. Her voice slowly dwindled down as even she was starting to get quite intrigued by the game he was playing. It was surprising to her that games like that one even existed. A game where you'r a human in a world filled with animals. Not to mention all the animals can talk and do just about everything else that a human can too; reading books, going fishing, buying food and homes, and even going to theme parks. Leni was going to ask him when they got home if she could play, but unfortunately, plans change sometimes.

Leni's shoelace became untied somehow and she tripped and fell on the sidewalk, scraping her knees and elbows just the tiniest bit. It brought pain, but nothing too unbearable. It did make her however, decide that she needed to stop so that she could tie her shoes. She called out to him, letting him know what she was doing. He seemed to be distracted by that game however because he just kept walking. She didn't blame him for that, it really did seem like an interesting game to her. So, she fumbled with tying her shoes, watching a white van zoom past, and then, finally finishing, started jogging to catch up to him.

He never left her line of vision so she knew where he was the whole time. But she started getting suspicious when the van that had zoomed past her earlier suddenly stopped on the other side of the road and turned itself around. Why had it stopped? It looked like whoever was driving it was in quite a hurry so seeing it suddenly stop was intriguing to say the least. Two men stepped out of the car dressed in plain white T-shirts and jeans and stood in place where they left the vehicle. Leni slowed her pace, now even more curious as to what they were doing, and noticed that they were both staring intently at Lincoln. Now moving with more caution, Leni kept an eye on these two strangers, both of which were still standing completely still. After a brief moment, they glanced at each other, nodded, and then immediately started running towards Lincoln's position.

At first she didn't catch on to what they were doing. Her first instinct, trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, was to think that they were just going on an evening jog. After all, Leni and Lincoln were on an evening walk. But as she looked across and saw exactly what it was they were heading for, her heart stopped. Leni's eyes widened and her heart rate resumed like a rocket breaking the sound barrier as she broke out into a sprint, furiously trying to get to her little brother before they did. She threw her purse on the ground, only thinking about one thing. Her legs were pumping furiously, only keeping in sync by the mere thought of Lincoln possibly being kidnapped. The two strangers approached the sidewalk just behind Lincoln and as they turned to face him, Leni caught up and brought a right hook straight into the cheekbone of one of them.

The man on the right stumbled to the side, "OW! What the hell?!"

"Leave my brother alone!" Leni exclaimed. They had no interest in her at the moment. At that time, their focus was on the boy. But, trying to make sure she wouldn't interfere again, she was shoved backwards and fell to the ground, hard. The two men then resumed their chase of the boy, but Leni wasn't going to give up that easily. She quickly got up and jumped on the left one before they could get too far. Taking him by surprise, Leni started wailing into the side of his face, eventually bringing him to the ground with a thud before they even came close to him. Leni jumped off of him and backed up a few feet, ready for whatever came her way.

The man on the ground dusted himself off and he tried shoving her to the ground one more time, this time even harder, to which they noticed her quickly get back up again. The second man pulled out a knife in hopes that it would scare her off, or at least into stopping, but she didn't even hesitate as she ran towards them. As she approached, he swiped the knife, barely catching the side of Leni's torso, ripping her dress up the side, cutting her there and catching her arm as well, creating a long, but not deep cut. She fell to the ground in pain and they hoped that would stop her, but sure enough, she got back up and started making her way towards them again. They knew by now that they weren't going to be able to get Lincoln without taking care of her first, so they both turned their attention to the bright blonde haired girl. Her face turned from one of anger, to one of fear as she gulped, noticing their change in attention. She started backing up slowly at first, then more quickly. When they started running, she turned around and started running as well. With her legs striding faster than theirs, she would have easily outran them, but her purse on the ground that she had dropped earlier made her trip and fall with a tumble. She tried to get up, but the pain radiating through her side and her arm made it extremely difficult and they grabbed her before she could get up and keep running.

Pulling her up to her feet, they punched her several times in the stomach and then again in the face. Still holding her up, the man with the knife took it, and slowly dragged the sharp edge across Leni's cheek, making a small cut and eliciting a painful squeal from the teen. Once he finished, he dropped her on the ground. Thinking that was enough, they left her there and turned around. Slowly, Leni got back up to her feet and started hobbling towards them. "You just can't get enough, can you?"

The man kicked her legs out from under her, making her quickly fall to the ground, and then he kicked her side two more times just for good measure. They looked back in Lincoln's direction and saw him way off in the distance, they scratched their heads and mumbled to each other about whether or not it was worth it. Leni got up to a crawling position, and overhearing what they were saying, spoke up herself, "It's too late. He's almost home now." She coughed and spat up a little bit of blood. "Even if you ran as fast as you could... you wouldn't be able to get him before he got into the house."

"She's bluffing..." one of them said.

"Dude, they were walking on the street at seven at night, their house has to be close. Why would she be bluffing?"

Leni chuckled, knowing that Lincoln was safe and that these two brutes weren't able to get to him. It was never her goal to try to put them into submission. She knew that she wasn't strong enough to do that, it would have surprised her if she did. All she wanted, was to buy Lincoln enough time so that he could get far enough away, which he did. He was almost home now. Once he got home he would tell everyone what happened and then they would all come back, finding her right here, hopefully with the monsters gone by then.

To Leni's surprise, the two men turned around and looked back down at her with a menacing smile painted on their faces. That was the first time she really took notice of those eyes, those vicious, lust filled eyes. It scared her beyond what she thought was possible and immediately, she froze in place, unable to move. What was going on? Why were they looking at her? Why couldn't she bring herself to move?

"Well sweetie." The man standing to the left had a low gruff sounding voice. "It looks like you're our new toy." She was now beyond fighting back, all of her energy had been completely drained from her body. It was bad enough that she was already beat up more than enough, but combined with the fact that she couldn't move a muscle just made everything worse. They each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her across the street to their van. She was dreading everything that was going to happen next. She didn't even want to think about it. But, it was not a total loss. Lincoln was safe thanks to her. She imagined if he was going through this instead and tears came to her eyes. At least it wasn't Lincoln.

They tossed her in the back of the van and each looked at her for a moment, then closed the back doors, leaving her in complete darkness. Before the van turned on and started driving off, Leni was able to faintly hear her name being called, Lincoln was calling out to her. It was kind of hard to tell, but even she knew that Lincoln was worried. He was worried about her. They were all going to start looking for her, only to find nothing. They were all going to be scared for her and she knew it, especially Lincoln. He was there the whole time and didn't even notice that he almost got kidnapped. Everything happened without him ever batting an eye, so he was going to be the one that was the most scared. It pained Leni thinking about how much grief that they were going to go through, but that didn't really matter. Anything that she was thinking about regarding the rest of the Loud family didn't really matter as much to her as one thing. The biggest thing was that Lincoln was safe. There was nothing wrong with him. She loved him, and was prepared to do whatever it took to protect him, and she felt like she did.

Leni was shaken and jostled around in the back of the dark van, trying to get a feel of her surroundings as she slowly crawled across the floor of the vehicle. Eventually, she came to a position where she was sitting against the wall closest to the front with her arms reaching around her legs. The floor she was sitting on had all these bumps and hills in straight lines going across the width of the van. It was uncomfortable to sit on to say the least and the fact that it was metal didn't help at all. The only sort of light that was shining was emanating from the cab of the vehicle. It shone a beam of light down through the center of the back of it, hitting square in the middle of the inside of the white door. Leni could make out to her left a box of duct tape and situated against the wall to her right were a couple of red toolboxes. Other than that there was nothing between her and the door of the van. The smell back there was almost unbearable, some kind of mix between sulfur and dead skunk. Leni had no idea how those two bozos could even stand that smell it was so awful. If it weren't for the fact that she were already crying, it would have made her start crying.

Leni couldn't make herself move no matter how hard she tried. It wasn't that she didn't want to, if she could make herself move, she would. The first option would be to rush to the back door and open it, then jump out and hope they didn't notice anything. But she was frozen in fear. No amount of psyching herself up to do it even came close to making her move an inch. It was those eyes, those evil enormous eyes. It was like they implanted a demon in her that made her freeze up as soon as she started thinking about them and unfortunately for her, she couldn't stop thinking about them. The demon was even strong enough to make her keep thinking about it and it didn't seem like there was anything that could change that, except one thing. Lincoln.

One would imagine that thinking about him could have helped Leni to get herself moving. Thinking about how much turmoil he was going through. By now he had to have realized that she was gone and come back looking for her. Imagining him crying over her absence only made it worse for her. He had to have been in so much pain by now, maybe even to the point of, considering he didn't know what actually happened, blaming himself for it. That was the last thing Leni wanted him to do. She willingly sacrificed herself so that he would be safe, but he didn't know that. For all he knew, they were trying to kidnap her, and they succeeded. She would tell him what really happened and hopefully, he would be more understanding. Knowing Lincoln however, she didn't think that was going to be the case. He was going to try to blame himself for as long as he possibly could. Leni didn't like the thought of that at all.

But he was safe.

The van was no fun to ride in. Other than the fact that she was being kidnapped, it still wasn't at all a smooth ride. Can't they at least give her that much? It was already bad enough having to ride around in vanzilla all the time, but this was even worse. Whoever was driving was doing it quite recklessly, clearly speeding, running stop signs and stop lights, and not to mention he was jumping just about every curb in their way. All Leni felt like she could do was sit on the ground, bouncing up and down on the ridged metal, constantly bruising her butt, hoping that she wouldn't get more hurt than she already was. Multiple bruises in her abdomen were absolutely torturous to her as she strained to keep herself from moving so that there would be no pain, not to mention that her lip was still bleeding and the long cut on her arm and side from the knife made it to where blood was slowly running down her side to the floor. It wasn't a deep cut so there wasn't any blood gushing out or anything, but it was still a painful feeling nonetheless.

She had gone from tired and beaten up, now to scared out of her mind. The realization of what was going on had finally hit her. She was being kidnapped. The things that she was about to endure, she knew were going to be terrible, no doubt, and it scared her. Tears were streaming down her face to the floor, combining with the little bit of blood that was also staining it. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this, but there was one thing that was keeping her going. It was the fact that Lincoln was okay; they hadn't touched a white hair on his head, and she was glad that she had succeeded with that much.

The van jostled violently again and Leni hit her head on the wall of the inside, knocking her out immediately. She didn't wake up again until she was already at the goons' house.

* * *

 **That chapter wasn't as long as some of the previous chapters, but It's not the shortest chapter and I really was expecting it to be. I really hope there's not too much fluff in there, but I still hope that you enjoyed reading it anyway.**

 **As always, I thank you for reading and I ask that you would leave a review telling me how I did even if you don't have any criticism for me. I do ask that if you do have criticism, that it would only be constructive. Don't just bash me, and even if you do bash me, at least tell me how I can improve. Thanks again for reading and I hope to have the next chapter out soon.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And Muchas gracias (many thanks) to everyone who is supporting this story. I really appreciate everyone who does. This chapter is going to be an interesting one. You may have noticed how I've done a perspective of almost all of the sisters. After this chapter I will only have one more to write about before finally finishing the story. This chapter is not going to be too exciting, and I really don't expect it to be the best, but I do hope you still like it anyway. Thanks for reading and Enjoy Chapter 13 of "Kidnapped."**

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

"Lincoln get up, it's time for supper!"

Lincoln sluggishly sat up and rubbed his eyes, stretching his legs across the bed as he did so. He needed that nap. It had been a long while since he had an afternoon slumber like that one. Why did he fall asleep in the first place? Oh yeah. Leni came into his room and told him all about what had really happened the day she was kidnapped. They cried and eventually he fell asleep on her shoulder. She must have slipped away and tucked him in before leaving his room.

Lincoln's sense of guilt was no longer plaguing him. It was a burden that had been lifted off of his shoulders for sure, but now, a new one took its place. After hearing that Leni saved him from being kidnapped, he felt like he owed her. He couldn't just not do anything for her, that was unthinkable. But what could he do? Take her to the mall? The movies? A fancy dinner? None of those seemed like the right thing to do for her at the moment.

Truthfully, he felt like he wasn't going to be able to pay her back, no matter what he did. No amount of shopping with her, or being her dress model, or even cooking or buying her dinner would make him feel different. Thinking more about it, he realized that even saving her life wouldn't have made him feel any different. He was still going to feel this way. No amount of things that he could do for her would ever make him feel like he could pay her back for what she did.

"Well bro, you coming?"

Lincoln realized that he was still sitting on the edge of his bed. He got up and slowly started walking towards the doorway. Lynn turned around and made her way downstairs, sliding down the railing. The boy stumbled across the creaky floor, slowly making his way down to the dinner table where everyone was waiting for him. It was the same Wednesday night meal as always; weinerschnitzel. No variety, as usual.

"Hey there Sleeping Beauty! Get enough rest?" Their father joked. "You were out for three and a half hours."

"I think so," Lincoln groggily said, rubbing his eyes. The boy then took his seat and they all began eating.

* * *

Lincoln was sitting on the couch playing one of his console video games. It was doing absolutely nothing to help his situation, but then again, was there really anything he could do at this point? He was always going to feel like he was indebted to Leni regardless of what he did. Not to mention there was the conflicting thought that he didn't really believe he could pay her back. What was wrong with him? Why did he feel this way? Was there really no other way to go about this? He could talk to Leni about it, that would help. But what would she tell him? She would say, "Oh, it's fine. Don't worry about it," or something along those lines. Lincoln gave an audible sigh. Why did Leni have to be the nice one?

"Hey Lincoln!" Speak of the devil.

"Hey Leni! What's up?" There was still so much that he needed to tell her. He thought that her telling him everything would ease his mind, but what happened was quite the contrary. Each time that one of his questions was answered, it only made him feel worse. He now felt a nagging need to pay her back for what she did, and he needed to tell her that. However, whether or not he was actually going to was a different story.

"Nothing, just hanging out with my little bro!"

"Okay," Lincoln replied with a slight hitch.

Leni sat there in silence for a minute, then asked him, "What game are you playing?"

"It's called creature crossing," he responded. "I know it looks like a little kids game but it's actually a ton of fun. The whole point of this game is that there's no specific goal. You can just set your own goals. Right now I'm trying to complete all the exhibits in the museum."

"Oh," Leni said. "It looks like fun! Can I play?"

Leni playing a videogame? It was like a dream come true! None of his other sisters except for Lori ever wanted to play videogames with him. And even she only did it that one time because she felt bad for being such a bossy sister. Leni was not only watching Lincoln play, but was also interested and she wanted to play the game herself. But was he going to let her? Of Course!

"Sure Leni! I'll let you play for a little bit!"

He handed her the controller and watched on as Leni started figuring the game out. She got a grasp of the controls pretty quickly, but to Lincoln, it seemed like she was still struggling with the whole idea of doing whatever you wanted. Leni, having seen Lincoln play tons of videogames before, was expecting there to be some kind of storyline to follow, and she was trying to look for it, and yet, she couldn't find it. After almost fifteen minutes of playing, Lincoln took the controls back. Maybe starting her own profile would help her figure everything out better. With that idea in mind, he started a brand new game, calling it "Leni's game" and then handed the controller back to her. Once she started the new game, it took her less than fifteen minutes to figure out what she was doing and was a pro after just thirty minutes. Lincoln was impressed. The two of them played the game together for a good long while in the living room.

Lynn wasn't too happy. She finished her supper and watched for a moment as Lincoln and Leni played that game on the couch. To her, it was perplexing that anyone could enjoy sitting down to play some stupid game that had no real purpose. After all, what was the point if you can't win? But that wasn't why Lynn was upset. Her mood was sour well before Leni and Lincoln started playing that game.

Lynn dragged herself up the stairs and shuffled into her room. She picked up a tennis ball, holding it tightly in her hand for a moment, and then threw it violently against the wall, denting it just slightly. "Oops..."

She forced herself up onto her bed and started throwing the tennis ball against the wall like she would if she were trying to fall asleep. What had happened that made Lincoln want to hang out with Leni more often? It was like he was totally ignoring his other sisters now. Lola hadn't had a butler for her tea party since Sunday morning, Lisa hadn't had someone to test out science experiments on, and Luna didn't have anyone to jam with. Of course to Lynn, all of that paled in comparison to the fact that she didn't have anyone to practice with now. Her sparring partner's attention had now been taken by her bemused, yet skittish older sister. Why?

Her mind wandered back to the day that Leni was kidnapped. Lincoln was the one who had rushed back with tears in his eyes, telling everyone what had happened. He revealed to them that he felt responsible for what happened to her, even to the point of putting all of the blame for it on his own shoulders. It did make sense that he would want to do things with her considering that, but to completely ignore his other siblings? What was suddenly so different about Leni that made him want to exclude everyone else? Why was he doing that?

Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe Leni was the one who was hogging Lincoln, keeping him all for herself, not even thinking about how any of his other sisters would also want to hang out with him. Thinking some more about it, she realized that Leni didn't even give Lincoln a chance to hang out with anyone else. What if he really did want to, but didn't want to tell Leni no?

Lynn's anger made her yell out for just a second, just as the dynamic duo happened to be passing by. "Wow," she thought. "Great timing Lynn..."

She had hoped that maybe the other noise in the house drowned out her own scream, but she knew that she didn't have that kind of luck. She tensed up, hoping that nothing would happen and that Lincoln and Leni would just ignore it. But sure enough, after hearing some mumbling coming from behind the door, there was a knock, followed by Lincoln asking to come in.

"Dang it," she whispered to herself. "Whaddaya want?"

"Lynn, are you okay?"

No beating around the bush, huh? He got straight to the point.

"I'm fine," she responded. "I just uhh... stubbed my toe jumping into bed."

Despite the fact that she had so many problems with Lincoln and Leni right now, she still tried to avoid telling them anything about it. It would have been so much easier for her to just say, "yeah, something's wrong. I wanna talk to you." But of course, Lynn had to do things the hard way as always. She had to keep up the charade that she had kept up for so long now, that she was the tough one, that nothing ever bothered her. Besides, it was too late for her to change plans anyway. She told him a lie, now she had to at least try to follow through with it. But Lincoln saw through it in less than a second.

He stepped into the room with a quizzical look on his face. "Lynn, what's going on?"

"I told you, it's nothing," she said, then stuffed her face into her pillow. Why was she acting like this? He only wanted to help her out. Why wouldn't she let him?

Lincoln crossed his arms and started tapping his foot. The look on his face now one of annoyance. Lynn's stubbornness was eventually going to get the best of her and Lincoln was determined to exploit it. He could be stubborn if he wanted too. "Lynn..."

"Just go away, okay? I don't know why you're so worried about me anymore when you could just be hanging out with Leni. Clearly she's your favorite."

Lincoln was admittedly a bit surprised by this. The last thing he expected of Lynn was for her to be envious of Lincoln's attention. But he understood now. "So that's what this is about."

Lynn sighed and flipped herself over on her bed, then sat up and faced her little brother. "Yeah, you got me. I'm jealous or whatever. Just go away."

The boy had no such plans. He strolled towards Lynn's bed and sat down next to her. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you jealous that I'm hanging out with Leni instead?"

"Ugh..." Lynn didn't want to answer that question. Instead, she just face planted on her pillow again. Why couldn't he just go away? What was it about their little brother that made him feel like he had to resolve every single issue? Sure, they all agreed that the sister fight protocol was a bad idea, especially after Lisa's dream experiment, but shouldn't he have learned his lesson by now?

Lincoln remained steadfast. He kept himself planted on the edge of her bed, waiting patiently for her to respond. It was already after dark, but he was prepared to wait there all night or until their parents made him go to his own room. Based on how their parents had been treating all of them recently, it seemed like the former was more likely. Lincoln was a rock, nay, a boulder, only to be moved by a genuine response from Lynn. "I'm not moving until you answer my question Lynn."

"Fine..." she quipped as she sat up. "You really wanna know why I think that way? Because ever since Leni was kidnapped, she's the only person you want anything to do with. First you felt guilty for her being kidnapped, then you threw her a party, and now, she's even playing videogames with you. If I were a complete moron and didn't know any better, I might've thought you had a crush on her like Clyde has a crush on Lori."

A bit harsh, but it wasn't something he couldn't work with. The entire time she was ranting, Lincoln's mind was processing the information and determining the best possible response for it. For a moment he considered joking about how it was possible he had a crush on her since she's adopted, but he quickly threw that idea out the window. When she was finished, he waited for a second, then nodded his head before replying.

"Everything that I did before this afternoon was because of the fact that I felt responsible for what happened," he started. "I mean, if you thought that you could have prevented it if you had done something, wouldn't you feel the same way?"

Lynn stayed still for a moment, pondering the question. Then, as if admitting defeat, she nodded. "Yeah. You're right."

It was true. If she were in the same situation that Lincoln was in just a few days ago, she would still be beating herself up mentally if she hadn't done anything. If anything, she would be feeling worse than Lincoln did. Her coaches would sometimes tell her that she had to focus. It wouldn't be very often, but there were times when they had to remind her. If something happened while she wasn't focusing on what was important, it would tear her apart. Especially if one of them was kidnapped.

But there was something about Lincoln and what he said that stood out to her. He looked like he was feeling significantly more energized. All that week so far he had been walking the line of depression, but now, there was nothing. No hint of any kind of sadness. It didn't take her long, but she eventually remembered what he said. " _Everything that I did before this afternoon..."_ What happened this afternoon?

"Wait a minute..." Lynn started before giving Lincoln a chance to speak. "What do you mean 'before this afternoon?'"

"I'm actually really glad you asked." Lincoln responded confidently. "Sit back. I've been wanting to tell someone since I knew about it."

Lynn adjusted herself to where her back was against the wall and she was sitting cross legged. Lincoln was sitting opposite of her the same way. He clapped and rubbed his hands together before he finally started talking. "I say that because it was this afternoon that I stopped feeling guilty for Leni getting kidnapped. She really opened my eyes on the subject and made me feel totally different about it."

Lynn was starting to take more interest now. She knew how he felt about the situation that Leni had been in. Up until this afternoon, apparently, he had been feeling immensely guilty for Leni's kidnapping, despite even Leni herself trying to convince him otherwise. But now all of a sudden he didn't? Just like that?

"What did she tell you?" Lynn asked, almost immediately regretting it. She hadn't noticed, but even before she asked that question, his face had turned more somber. Not to the point of completely breaking down however, at least, not yet.

Lincoln took several deep breaths, his whole body becoming more nervous and shaky with each breath he took. Wasn't breathing like this supposed to ease nervousness? It only seemed to be making it worse. His face was starting to get red too, eliciting even more guilt from Lynn for even asking the question. But eventually, he decided to speak up, "She told me that she had gotten kidnapped because..." he paused for just a second, and took another deep breath. "Because she was protecting me."

Lynn was now even more confused than before. She was protecting him? She was the one that got kidnapped, not him. She should have been protecting herself. Maybe there was something more to what he was saying. She was abput to ask, but he continued with his story.

"You see, the guys who kidnapped Leni, they were... actually trying to kidnap me."

The pieces of the puzzle all started coming together now. It explained everything. It explained why they were hanging out together. It explained why Leni was so insistent about Lincoln's well being. Even after all of the things that she went though, being beaten, sent to the hospital and other unmentionable things, she still insisted on making sure that he was okay; that he was safe. Why was she like this? Why did she go to such extreme measures to guarantee his safety?

Wait. Why wouldn't she? Wouldn't they all do that? Not just for Lincoln, but for each other as well?

Rita and Lynn Sr would do the same for sure. Lori? Despite her bossy attitude sometimes, she still loved them to death. Luna? Oh, without a doubt! If anything, she was Lincoln's favorite sister; maybe even everyone else's favorite sister too. Luan? Even with all her pranks that get them hurt sometimes, it was always in good fun. Not to mention that every time someone got hurt from one of her pranks, she was the first one to respond, trying to make them feel better by any means possible. Lynn? She was the strongest out of all of them, not only would she be able to do something, she would be able to prevent herself from getting into a situation like that in the first place. Lincoln? The way he was constantly beating himself up over it, shows that if he had known what was going on, he would have done something. Lucy? As dark as she could be sometimes, even she would not stand by idly. She always was the first one to go get help. Lana? While she may not be the strongest, she could annoy just about anyone half to death by pelting them with acorns and mud pies. Lola? She was without a doubt the most selfish one; the most likely to not do anything. But even she had her moments, she would probably scream and yell to no end until the problem was resolved like she always did. Lisa? With her genius, she would find out what was wrong and remedy it in an hour, maybe even less. The only one who wouldn't do anything was Lily, and that was only because she couldn't. Leni?

Leni had already shown what she was willing to do to protect not just Lincoln, but all of them. Had someone asked her, she would without a doubt do the same for any of her sisters. Not only that, but she would do it over and over again. As long as the rest of them were safe, she would be more than willing to endure such suffering.

Lynn had been so deep in thought that she didn't even notice tears start streaming down her brother's face. Without skipping a beat, she reached out, closing the distance between them and hugged him. He quickly returned the favor and they held each other like that for at least a minute.

They both broke the hug at the same time. Lincoln rubbed his eyes as Lynn sat back against the wall again. She wanted to ask him why he started crying, but decided against it for fear of making it worse. Besides, he began telling her why just a few seconds later.

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. It's okay."

"I just... ugh..." Lincoln was struggling to look for the right words. Lynn was sitting there patiently, waiting for him to talk. "I don't feel like it's my fault that she got kidnapped, but, now I feel like I have to repay her somehow. Only, I know that there's nothing I can do to do that. Nothing that I could possibly give her would ever be enough to make me feel like that."

"Listen Linc," she started. "Even if you could find a way to pay her back, or whatever, she wouldn't let you."

He knew that. Deep in the back of his subconscious mind, he knew that she wasn't going to let him do anything in return. Despite all his thoughts about having to pay her back and not being able to, he knew that even if he could, somehow, get something so amazing that it would be considered a good enough repayment, she wouldn't accept it.

"But why not?" he asked.

"I don't know to be completely honest with you. But I do know this. I would do the same thing. As would Lori, Luna, Luan and the rest of our sisters. Even if you wanted to be given something in return, would you be able to accept it?"

"Well... no..."

"I think that answers that question then. Good talk bro." Lincoln didn't move a muscle. He didn't even consider it like that. Leni had saved his life and even if she did want something in return there was nothing that he could do to recompense. But if the situation were reversed, and Leni was the one who felt this way, he knew that he wouldn't let her pay him back, no matter how much she tried. This whole time he thought that it was about what she did for him. But he didn't even consider that it might have been what she wanted. She wanted to protect him, and Lincoln being safe was her reward for it. And if that was enough for her, then it was enough for him too.

Lincoln thanked Lynn for the talk and got off of her bed to go back to whatever he and Leni was doing. It was funny. The whole reason he went to Lynn's room in the first place is because he thought that something was wrong with her and wanted to help. But in the end, it was her who ended up helping him. He chuckled at this revelation and continued on to Leni and Lori's room.

He opened the door and Leni immediately perked up. "Hi Linky! Were you able to cheer Lynn up?"

"Oh, I did more than that!" Lincoln then walked into the room and sat on the opposite side of the bed from Leni.

"Ooo, really? What did you talk about?"

Lincoln began to tell her about everything that happened. From the point that she told him what she was bummed about to the end of it where she ended up helping him. Leni sat and listened attentively to every single word he said. When he got to the part where Lynn told him that Leni wouldn't let him pay her back, she jumped in. "She's right."

"I know. And I would even do the same thing. But I don't know why."

"It's cause I love you Linky. I didn't do that to get anything out of it. I did it for you. Kind of like a present. You don't give someone a present and then expect them to give you one too, do you?"

"Of course not, that's the whole point! You don't give someone a gift because of what they did, you give it to them because you wanted to!"

"Exactly."

Lincoln was now surprised in two ways. For one, he had no idea that Leni was even able to process those kinds of thoughts, just like Lori thought the previous night. Second, he finally realized that she didn't protect him for any reason other than the fact that she wanted to. He may have known that before now, but it took until right at that moment for it to click in his mind.

"Wow, I can't believe you did that Leni!"

"Did what?"

She was back to her normal self. Lincoln still loved his older sister, regardless of what she did or how simple minded she was. The ditsy blonde had her moments though, and it was in those moments that he came to love and appreciate her even more than before, which he never thought was possible.

The two siblings could have talked all night about anything and everything, but the time did come when they had to go to bed. They bid each other goodnight and Lincoln strolled back to his room and Leni picked up one of her various fashion magazines to read.

Lincoln was always surprised at how much Leni could talk, even though he really shouldn't have been. He was even surprised that he was able to keep up with everything she was saying. Every time she said something, it was almost like listening to one of those disclaimer recordings at the end of radio commercials. You always knew that what they were saying was important, and you always caught the gist of it, but you never really heard what they were saying. With Leni though, Lincoln tried his best.

The boy got to his room and fell asleep rather quickly, getting a peaceful slumber that night without distraction.

* * *

 **As always I thank you for reading this chapter. The next one will for sure be the last one of the story. Please review it, even if you don't have any criticism for me. I do ask that if you do have some kind of critique for me, don't just tell me how awful I am without telling me how I can improve. Thanks again to everyone for reading this story. If you liked it, please favorite and follow it.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks to everyone for reading, as usual. I got writers block pretty bad starting to write this, but I want to think I finished off strong. Maybe a little fluff here and there, but I liked the final product. There's a bit of Irony going to present itself in this chapter that's not intended to be funny, but I hope you still like what I did anyway. Here is the final chapter. After almost 9 months of writing and planning, I present to you the closing chapter of the longest story that I have ever written to date. "Kidnapped."**

 **(This chapter was edited slightly post publication)**

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

Luan was always jealous of Leni. Actually, envious would be the better word. Despite the constant reassurance of her sisters, she never thought that she was as good looking as any of them. It wasn't that she thought she looked ugly by any means, even with the braces. If anything, the fact that guys asked her out as often as they did, should have made her think higher of herself. It was just because of the fact that she had so many sisters that she thought were much better looking than she was that made her think this way. It would be like if Leni was a perfect ten by society's standards, then Luan would be closer to a six or maybe a seven. Not ugly by any means whatsoever, but to her, not as good looking as her sisters.

It was because of this that Luan, other than Lincoln, was actually the one impacted the most by it. No one had even noticed that Luan had been staying in her own room most of the time. Sure, she helped out with the party and occasionally cracked a joke at the dinner table, but the rest of the time that she wasn't at school, she was out of the way of everyone else. She even deceived them so well that no one noticed that anything was wrong with her.

Thursday went by without a hitch. Lori broke the news to everyone after dinner that night about how Leni couldn't have children anymore. Everyone else reacted somehow. Whether they were words of comfort or tears of sorrow for Leni's diagnosis. Lisa was the only one that wasn't shocked by this revelation, but even she gave Leni some comforting words. Lincoln was feeling especially bad for her, but after various different talks with Leni, whatever situation that made them talk, Lincoln had made up his mind to not beat himself up over it anymore.

Luan was the only one who had nothing specific to say. She groaned and whined with the rest of them upon hearing the bad news, just enough for them to not suspect anything, but other than that, nothing. There was no comment directed in Leni's attention, no sobbing or even slightly shed tear, not even a distasteful pun was made. She kept silent and only spoke to keep up her charade.

It was no secret that she was affected by this just like everyone else was. But she was the only one who wasn't willing to show it. Immediately after dinner was finished, she strolled up to her room and sat on her bed, watching youtube comedians for the rest of the night, hoping that it would stop the tears from streaming down her face.

"Why did it have to be Leni..." she sighed out loud. Having her headphones in, she didn't even realize that Luna had come into the room right as she said that. Luna seemed to be a bit surprised. Luan didn't seem to be acting that out of character lately, and now she was crying? Maybe the realization of what had happened to Leni finally hit her. Luna, thinking this was the case, was now determined to be there for her immediate younger sister and roommate.

"Hey dude! What's up?"

Luan jumped upon hearing Luna's voice seemingly come from out of nowhere. When did she come into the room?

"Nothing," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes before turning to face her older sister.

"Nice try. Your eyes are red, that means you've been crying." Luna didn't like being straightforward like that, but if she knew Luan as well as she thought she did, then this was the only way to approach this situation. "Now tell me. What's up?"

"What's up is that I want you to mind your own business," Luan sharply responded.

"Harsh sis..." Luna said almost sarcastically, not once changing her expression. Those words actually did cut into Luna like a knife, but if she made it seem like she didn't care, then maybe she could get something out of the young comedian. That way was more likely than letting her provoke a fight of some kind.

"Mmmgghhh..." Luan tried ignoring her and continued watching comedy skits.

Luna looked over Luan's shoulder and leaned against the wall next to her. She kept staring on with an expressionless look etched on her face, thinking about what she should say next. Then it came to her. It wasn't the best way to start it off, but it seemed like the only way to guarantee a response. "It's about Leni isn't it?"

"Yes!" she snapped. All of a sudden, everything that she was thinking burst forth out of her mouth like a dam, nearly drowning Luna in the process. "It's not fair what happened to her. She's so nice and innocent and beautiful, she didn't deserve it, any of it. Not just whatever they did to her, but the fact that she can't have kids anymore?! That's awful! She would have been a great mom too! Sure, she might be a little ditsy, but everything always goes great for her! She would have found a nice guy, had a beautiful family, and..."

"Dude! Shut up!" Luan ceased immediately and her face turned to one of complete shock. Luna was now regretting not only making her go off like that, but also for snapping at her. Her face changed to one of sorrow and her shoulders drooped a little bit. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

Luan looked back at her older sister, now with an understanding expression. "No, I'm sorry too. All you wanted was to talk with me, I should have known that."

Luan was never the most audible when it came to expressing her feelings, but when it did happen, it was obvious. Luna sat down on the bed next to her sister and put an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry about it dude! I pushed you to that point, even if it didn't take much to do it."

"Yeah... So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Luna took a deep breath in, "Well dude, you practically told me everything I needed to know already. But I'll still go ahead and ask anyway. What's wrong?"

"You probably already know what it is. I've told you this before," Luan started hesitantly. "It's about how I think I'm not that good looking compared to the rest of you, then combined with the fact that Leni got... well... you know. It just makes me feel awful..."

"Well I don't really blame you for feeling bad for Leni, we all do," Luna replied. "But despite that, you can't keep torturing yourself like this, especially now! Leni needs us right now more than ever."

"I know, I know. I just... can't get those thoughts out of my head... especially thinking about what happened to Leni..."

"You need to stop worrying about it sis... Ya keep acting like this and you'll eventually turn into Luce..."

After a brief moment of silence, Luna then followed it up with, "That would be a tragedy man..."

After that comment, they both stayed silent for quite some time. Luan leaned into Luna's shoulder after a minute and they just sat there in complete silence, to the surprise of everyone in the house. They were expecting Luna's guitar playing to drown out whatever else was going on, but there was none of that. Only quiet. The neighbors certainly appreciated it, but the rest of the Loud siblings automatically assumed something was wrong when no noise came from their room for more than three minutes.

There was a knock on the door, then Lori poked her head in. "What's going on? It's literally, eerily quiet in here..."

Luan's head popped up and jerked slightly to the side to see Lori. Luna got up from the bed and looked back at Luan. She mouthed the words, "You good fam?" When she recieved a nod Luna perked her head up and said to Lori, "Everything's fine dude. I just finished talking to her."

"Oh, okay! Well, I wanted to ask you guys something."

A quizzical look came across Luna's face. "Ask away."

"Well," Lori started. "I thought that it would be a good idea if we had a sibling sleepover tomorrow night! We haven't had one in a long time and I think after everything that's happened recently, it would be good for all of us!"

Luan and Luna looked at each other for a moment, as if asking each other what they wanted to do. "I'm down if you are Luan."

"Sounds like a great idea! I've got some pretty _punny_ jokes I've been wanting to tell everyone. You might think they're cheesy, but I think they're pretty gouda!"

Luna and Lori chuckled as Luan lost herself laughing. Lori left the room and went to tell everyone else about the sleepover. Even Lisa agreed to join them, claiming that it would make for a good study. After all of the sisters agreed, there was just one person left. Lincoln. She strolled over to his room and knocked on the door. She heard some rustling sounds, followed by a thump, more rustling, then another thump, louder than the previous one before Lincoln finally opened the door to reveal Lori standing right there in front of him.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I've already asked everyone else and everyone wants to have a sibling sleepover tomorrow night. You in?"

Lincoln was doubtful at first, thinking that there was some ulterior motive behind Lori wanting to do this. But the more he thought about it, the better of an idea he thought it was. Not only would it give everyone a chance to hang out with each other and become closer as siblings, but after recent events, he thought that this was a perfect way to help everyone get over it better.

"Definately," he responded. "Is it gonna be in the living room?"

"Actually, I was thinking it would be in my room," she responded. "I think it would literally make it too casual if it were in the living room. I really want this one to be more personal."

"More personal?"

"Yeah, not just watching movies and making pillow blankets and all that. I was hoping that we could all just talk to each other. Not about anything specific either, just talking, just cause we can. Anyone can say anything they want to say."

"Oh, okay." The concept was quite intriguing to Lincoln, even if he wasn't going to admit it. There were plenty of things he wanted to tell everyone. Well, not even everyone, just someone. Everyone has things that they want to say. Sometimes, people won't say anything for fear of being judged, being made fun of, or for other reasons.

"Do you still wanna come?"

Lincoln did have to think about it for a minute. He did want to hear everyone's juicy tales and other stories, but at the same time he didn't want to reveal his own.

"You don't have to come. I'm not gonna make you."

"I'll come," Lincoln finally responded. Even though it was probably gonna be awkward for him, he decided that it would be a good idea. Besides, he wanted some quality bonding time with his sisters. There were bound to be things that he didn't know about some of them.

* * *

Lori and Leni had spent the entire afternoon cleaning and organizing their room for the huge sibling sleepover. Both of their beds had been made, sleeping bags were rolled up and stacked against the wall just underneath their window, and they had even set up a projector so that they could watch some movies. They had drinks, sweets (specifically chocolate), and enough popcorn to feed a small army. When the time came for the sleepover to start, the two of them checked and double checked everything to make sure that everything was just right.

After the finishing touches had been made, Lori made the announcement that the sleepover had officially started. One by one, everyone piled into the room, each bringing their own supply of things they would need for the night.

There was a long awkward silence once everyone arrived. They had never done this before, so no one was entirely sure what to do. They all looked around at each other, hoping someone would break the silence, but there was nothing, not even a whisper. What was everyone waiting for?

"I like it..." Lucy stated, wearing the same indifferent look on her face as always.

"Wow. The Silence is _hearesistable_. I was expecting to get _quiet_ an earful!"

"Ugh..."

"You might for that one Luan, that was awful!"

"Better than sitting here in silence, Lola. At least someone started talking."

"Fair enough."

"So, like, how is everyone! Excited?"

"Alright guys," Lori finally stated. "We've got soda, crackers, chips, popcorn, and best of all..."

" _Chocolate,"_ they all said in unison.

"I got first dibs!" Lincoln yelled.

"You gotta race me for it!"

"Oh, as far as chocolate goes, I'll beat anyone to it!"

"Are you kidding? You're looking at the fastest person in the county, maybe even the state!"

But before any of them could even reach the chocolate bars, Lana had already made her way over there and had started guzzling up the supply like a hummingbird drinks nectar.

"Hey, save some for us!"

"Dang it. I was enjoying the eerie silence."

Lana looked up at everyone else with a mouthful of chocolate, about to stuff another bar in her mouth. She dropped it immediately as soon as everyone else sans Leni, Lori, and Lily charged towards her. Lori looked on, almost appalled at their behavior. She couldn't believe it was already time for the whistle. If she was being honest with herself though, she knew this was going to happen.

 ** _TWEEEEEEEEET!_**

"Calm down guys! There's plenty of chocolate for everyone. But if you do that again, Literally no one will get any, understood?"

Everyone nodded and they each grabbed some chocolate, keeping the chaos more organized.

"Alright guys. We totes have tons of things to do! We've got movies, board games, card games and like, dozens of things! What do we wanna do first?"

"Let's watch 'King of the Rings!'"

"Lincoln, we literally watched that last time. Besides, we don't have it in here."

Luna perked up next, "I've got an idea!"

Without any other options, Lori opened the floor to Luna's idea. "Okay. It's kind of a twist on spin the bottle..."

"But Lincoln's the only boy!"

"Yeah, that's kind of gross."

"You gotta let me finish dudes. I was about to say instead of kissing, when the bottle points at one of us, we tell everyone something that no one knows about."

Everyone Liked that idea. Lori especially did since this was what she was going for in the first place when planning this party. She went to where the snacks were and grabbed an empty soda bottle that someone had already downed, then placed it on the floor in the middle of the group.

"I'll go first since I recommended it." Luna then cleared her throat and began to speak. "I know that it seems like I only like rock music, but I actually listen to classical music when I'm studying or going to sleep."

She then spun the bottle. They all watched as it twisted around on the floor dozens of times. Finally, it came to rest pointing at Lincoln.

"Well Lincoln, what's something about you that none of us know about?"

Lincoln took a deep breath. This was something he really wanted to tell someone, just for the sake of telling someone, but he knew that the opportunity would never present itself. Now he had an excuse to not just tell one of them, but all of them. "Well guys, you know how I really like Ace Savvy?" They all nodded. "Well, I've been doing some Ace Savvy Fanfiction."

Lincoln reeled back as he expected them to all laugh at him, but what he instead heard were words of encouragement.

"Cool bro."

"At least it's not princess pony." Lucy was secretly blushing at Luna's comment.

"Can you write other things too? Can you write me a princess story!?"

"I wanna read some of the stuff you write!"

"I also would like to inquire gazing upon your literary works, even if they are merely works inspired by fictitious universes, code name: fanfics."

"I have a better idea," Lincoln said, still reeling in the fact that his sisters were so supportive of him. "Let's finish this game first." He then took his turn spinning the bottle.

* * *

They continued playing for several hours, each person revealing more secrets about themselves each time the bottle was pointed in their direction. So many secrets were shared in less than a few hours by everyone. From Lucy telling everyone that she actually liked princess pony (Luna cringed a little, thinking about the comment she made earlier), to Luna admitting that she had gotten drunk before, then swearing that she would never do it again. But the entire time that this was happening, not once did anyone laugh or criticize, not wrongfully anyway. Nobody said anything that was intended to be harmful. Nobody made fun of anyone else. They all accepted all of the others little nuances that they had, and eventually, it got to the point where everyone ran out of things to say. There were no longer any secrets between siblings. Even Leni ended up telling the little kids that she was adopted. It was met with mixed reactions, and of course Lisa had already known about it, but it was now out there. Everything that all of them had been hiding was now out there.

No more secrets.

After this they had all agreed to watch one of the family's favorite movies of all time. It was one that they could all agree on. It wasn't the best movie in the world by any means, but it meant the world to them as a family. As Lori popped in the dvd, Luan turned the projector on. Lori and Leni had set up a surround sound system in their room so that they could watch their favorite movies or shows in the privacy of their own room. Now it was being used to watch one of their favorite movies of all time. They turned the lights off and on the corner of the projector screen was a blue icon with the words "video paused" in the center of it. Lori then pressed the play button, and before the screen even showed anything, everyone sat up in their seats, wherever they were sitting, each of them sporting a huge smile on their faces. Even the elder siblings couldn't help but show their delight from watching this movie.

 _"Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba_

 _Sithi uhm ingonyama"_

As the first word was held out, the sun rising on the African Savannah could be made out. Immediately, everyone in the room, even Lisa, became covered with goosebumps. As the song progressed, each of their feelings became more intensified. This movie wasn't any of their favorites. Their favorites all ranged from " _King of the Rings_ " to " _The Princess Bride"_ even to _"Monty Python and the Holy Grail."_ They didn't all agree on many things, especially when it came to their favorite movies. But if there was one thing that they agreed on, even if they never agreed on anything else, ever, then it would that " _The Lion King_ " was one of the best movies ever made.

 _"From the day we arrive on the planet_

 _And blinking, step into the sun_

 _There's more to see than can ever be seen_

 _More to do than can ever be done."_

All of the Loud children remained completely silent as the song played out. Each of them nearly holding their breaths watching the magnificent intro to an amazing film. They could all barely contain their excitement as the intro chugged along. Rita and Lynn Sr could hear the movie playing upstairs from their room and even they got goosebumps just listening to it.

 _"There's far too much to take in here_

 _More to find than can ever be found_

 _But the sun rolling high_

 _Through the sapphire sky_

 _Keeps great and small on the endless round_

 _It's the circle of Life!"_

As the main part of the song played, everyone's goosebumps that had nearly subsided returned to them almost instantly. And then again as the words repeated themselves after a brief instrumental break, the goosebumps returned even stronger. As the song came to a close, everyone was jumping up and down in their seats they were so excited. Then the title screen appeared with a percussive hit and the story itself began.

There were many more moving moments for them during this movie. All of them sang along to _"I just can't wait to be king"_ and _"Hakuna Matata."_ The scene with the stampede made them all tense up, as they knew what was coming next. When Simba came up to his dad trying to wake him up, all of them with the exception of Lucy and Lisa cried. But even they weren't resistant from feeling nothing. Every time that any of them were watching this movie, when they got to that specific scene, they always hoped that Mufasa would wake up, but he never did.

They all laughed and cried as the movie progressed, holding onto each other and shoving each other away in some cases. More goosebumps came and left as each scene played out, especially the _"Remember who you are"_ scene.

There was one scene at the very end that they had all nearly forgotten about. After Simba had finished fighting Scar, his triumphant return to pride rock left them all with even more goosebumps. The combination of the dramatic music playing along with the flawlessly executed animation going all the way up to the end of the movie left all of the Loud children with shivers running down their spines. As they all settled back into place and Lori flipped the lights back on, each one of them started talking amongst themselves. Lori gathered their attention before too long, telling them that Leni had something to say.

"Guys," she started. Leni's brain was busy thinking and going through all of the different scenarios that could play out. "I know that this past week hasn't exactly been like, pleasant for any of us..." the mood soured pretty quickly, recalling what had happened just at the beginning of that week. "But I don't think any of us should be feeling sad or gloomy. I know that what happened was like..." Leni paused, searching for the right words, "not good, but, like the monkey said, 'it doesn't matter, it's in the past.' Even if it still hurts, we don't have to run from it. Lola, you won't quit doing beauty pageants just because you get second, right?"

Lola scoffed, "Of course not!'

"Luna, you won't quit playing music if you do a bad show, will you?"

"No way dude!"

"Exactly. And I don't think we should quit being happy just because something terrible happened, right?" Everyone nodded their heads. "Great! I'm so glad you guys agree."

Leni went back and sat down on her bed. Lincoln, who was sitting on the floor next to it, decided to come up and sit with her. "Okay everyone, what do you want to do next?"

"Let's play Uno!"

"HAHA, YES! I'm sooooo gonna win!"

Everyone sighed, "Whose idea was it to even bring games? Lynn's just going to win like she always does!"

"Hey! I'm trying to be a better sport now. I don't even have to go outside anymore to celebrate my victories."

"Let's give it a shot guys. Besides, if we team up against her, maybe she won't win."

"Aww, c'mon, that's not fair."

"Taking into account the style of game Uno is, combined with the fact that you have a win percentage of 99.9%, it would be safe to assume that teaming up against you would not only prove fruitless, but is utterly pointless. We would all be better off trying to beat you by ourselves."

"Way to ruin the moment Lisa... I thought it was a good idea bro..."

"I don't really want to play Uno. I wanna watch the Lion King again!"

"Yeah me too!"

"Me three!"

"Okay, listen up!" Lori exclaimed. "I'll put the movie on again, and anyone who wants to play Uno can play that while the rest of us are watching the movie."

Half of them began a game of Uno while Lori put the movie back on. The ones participating in the card game only ended up playing one round before switching back to watching the movie. They just couldn't resist watching their favorite family movie when it came on. This time around, nearly everyone had fallen asleep before the end of it. Lori was the only one who didn't. So once the movie ended, she took it upon herself to shut everything down for the night and turn the lights off. It was quite the task walking back to her own bed in the dark without stepping on anyone, but she successfully made it without waking anyone else up.

That night ended up being one of the best night of each of their lives. All of the troubles they had gone through the past week had faded away. And while some of the effects would remain with them for the rest of their lives, not a soul had any problems. They all loved each other, and that was all that mattered to any of them at that moment. Nothing Else.

 _"Remember who you are..."_

We are the Louds.

 ** _\- The End -_**

* * *

 **Thanks for reading guys. I really hope you enjoyed this story. I know that this last chapter was not the most exciting, but I was kind of expecting it to be honest. My whole purpose for this chapter was for all of the characters to not want to feel bad for Leni anymore, and I think I successfully did that. I know that I could have done more with it, but there was already a lot of fluff in here and I felt like I would only be adding even more fluff if I did decide to go further. I really enjoyed writing this story as a whole and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it.**

 **My next story is going to be a simple one shot, heavily involving the fact that Leni is adopted and that's all I'm going to say about it. No spoilers! I hope you guys go read it!**

 **As usual I ask that you leave a review and tell me what you thought of the story whether you have critique for me or not. I always ask that if you do have critique, that you would give me something to improve on and not just bash the story. Thanks again to everyone for reading my story.**

 **rctperson85, signing off till the next one!**

 **12/5/2017**


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